Authentic in a Fake World: How Internet Personalities Became Our New Hollywood
“Ugh, it’s time to make some steak.”
This was said to the “chat,” the viewers watching, as streamer Brett Rank greeted fellow hikers entering the hot springs he had just soaked in while hanging out with fellow fans during his live stream on Twitch and YouTube. It’s quite an amazing story about being an adventuring hiking streamer with his dog, Mr. Gibby, and Scuba, a 2000 Toyota Land Cruiser. They are regularly streaming their nights setting up camp and cooking, chatting with the viewers, chilling, taking a dab or an edible I mean, edibles. I enjoy a shared digital ‘penjamin’ toast while watching and winding down in the evenings.
Oct 21, 2026, with a campfire glowing in the background. Rank regularly streams outdoor adventures, cooking, and hiking across the American West. (Image courtesy of Brett Rank / YouTube)
I am a veteran who uses medical cannabis, and it has been a blessing to have something that can help with mental health. I guess that is also a stereotype. It took a while to get over the stigma around cannabis, which is silly but makes sense considering how it is demonized in our society. I will say this: cannabis is not for everyone, but when it helps you because you seek it as a medicine, that is the key.
I have struggled the last couple of years with severe mental health issues and trying to find what normal is again. These creators bring a much-needed mental break when we all feel collectively burned out. Lately my spark has been sparking, but it’s not all the way back. I enjoy art, painting, expressive graphic design, and intentionally seeking new perspectives.
I started seeing Brett Rank’s short-form content all over my YouTube Shorts feed in the Spring of 2026, and he was engaging, inspiring, and in a niche the algorithm knew well. The most inspiring recurring quote that sticks with me is “Out here outperforming sober people,” as he is hiking several miles on an alpine trail after taking 20 edibles and vaping the ‘penjamin’ along the trail, or hitting the gym after taking edibles. I know I am not alone when viewers say they are inspired to hit the trails or the gym after watching one of his videos.
I’ve become a regular viewer of these streams, keeping them on like background nightly news ambiance while I make dinner or work. In every chat, the recurring question always pops up: “What do you do for work?” I can’t help but think it comes from a place of genuine curiosity. Either viewers dream of living that nomadic, adventurous lifestyle, feel a compulsive need to know everyone’s hustle, or simply can’t fathom a modern society where people can brand themselves and get paid for it.
We are in a loud world, with everyone fighting to be seen, heard, and cared for, because our democracy and the very fabric of society are fraying. Economists call this structural shift technofeudalism. Under traditional capitalism, companies competed to sell goods in an open market. In our modern digital economy, Big Tech platforms operate as digital fiefdoms. The platform owners act as digital lords, algorithms act as estate walls, and creators act as digital serfs cultivating virtual land to extract cloud rent through attention and sponsorships.
When viewers ask, “What do you do for work?”, they are feeling the friction of this shift: the traditional paycheck is being replaced by digital tollbooths and rent-seeking algorithms. Maybe that is The New Renaissance.
A Renaissance doesn’t happen by accident; it happens when a new technology decentralizes the spread of ideas.
Most of us from pre-2000 grew up with our entertainment, sports, and news coming from TV, newspapers, magazines, and conversations, when we functioned more like social humans rather than programmed NPCs that think we need to chase a stale American Dream.
Maybe I’m crazy for wanting a flip phone and wired headphones in this day and age. But even if my digital minimalism is a solo mission, I know I’m not alone in feeling a collective grief for what is genuinely authentic. French philosopher Jean Baudrillard called this condition hyperrealism: a state where media representations replace actual reality until we live among simulacra or copies without an original, where everything from political speeches to Costco simulated blueberries feels synthetic and rehearsed.
They cut analog TV when the internet took over the distribution of pop culture, news, and oversharing. Platforms like YouTube now serve as the broadcasting framework for creators to operate, much like TV stations did, tapping into the machine that is society.
It’s a nice escape, and I enjoy creators who are just genuine and good-hearted. You can feel their energy through the screen. I think of Serena Neel’s videos and her ‘Free 7-Eleven Store’, stocked with essentials and items you’d find in a 7-Eleven, for delivery and for food carriers who provide delivery service to their home.
She is always finding ways to give back to the local community, doing so authentically and inspiring her viewers. Viewers have commented, “We made the right person famous!” She co-stars alongside her dog, Don, and her husband, Thomas Dale, who left his VP career to become her full-time content husband. They announced in October that their first child is on the way.
It is like we are part of these people’s lives at a close friend level. It’s another content creator who brings positive vibes to our screens in a time of need. We, the viewers, enjoy seeing all of her brand deals, creative crafts, sourdough, and next big opportunities, as if we are living vicariously through these personalities and giving them that energy as fans in this system.
Well, I am writing this article as I watch the latest stream: Brett will find a girlfriend and will become the next successful internet persona. The saga continues as we tune in, but I think the chat is also manifesting this success for his brand. His other half just might be a fellow streamer, both living life in the mountains, just haven’t crossed streams yet. He has standards, which is refreshing when the world of “Looksmaxxing” and hookup culture has dulled the masses’ sense of acceptance. I love when the internet makes the right people famous and/or just successful but famous in the viewers’ eyes.
We all love to see our fellow humans succeed, and it’s a plus when they help others, live life to the fullest, and not let the polarized climate get us down.
This might be my neurodivergence, but when I have a couple of edibles, it’s like I took the black pill from AHS: Double Feature, Red Tide. When creatives take this pill, minus the bloodthirst and pale skin side effects, it unlocks a productive flow state. I am not saying my writing is any good, but it works. I guess it’s like if you are action-oriented and creative, consuming cannabis, you won’t be the “lazy stoner” stereotype. Consistency pays off, and we see that in Brett’s content and in anyone who shows up and posts anyway, even if they can’t see the audience or results right away.
He has been livestreaming with Starlink for a month while traveling, hiking, and camping in the wilderness across Colorado, the Midwest, and Oregon. It’s awesome to see people you subscribe to gain a fanbase and win at life. It’s interesting to see an everyday person deliver such a high-quality remote stream while doing something that isn’t heavily scripted or inauthentic. We live in a society that can’t trust our own country’s media, and everything feels fake.
There are so many tribes, corners, and rabbit holes on X, formerly known as Twitter. I watch a few different views because I refuse to be held in an echo chamber of ideologically labeled boxes. The internet is a battlefield of polarized tribes and hyperrealistic political memesters. Sometimes we want a variety of internet media, music, and news, or basement podcasters, as many call them.
Other times, we just need a Saturday-morning cartoon, but make it a Monday satirical meme: a much-needed distraction from the Truman Show of the world we are collectively experiencing.
The shared, pending crash-out over the cheap psyops they feed us, combined with the blatant disregard from a government working against the people it’s supposed to serve, leaves us taxed from every possible angle.
That’s why I choose to tune in to specific personalities who let us into their day-to-day lives, deep-dive video essays, comedy, art, and adventures. A way to find some balance in this cracking society. Some streamers, video journalists, and podcasters are genuine, bringing that good energy to your everyday digital routines.
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I understand firsthand how live TV works and what it’s like to see a streamer live. It’s just them, with no media production (usually); it’s genuine, like finding a handwritten note from a friend in a world full of push notifications, or a neighbor letting you watch the game from their couch.
It’s like a Zoom meeting, but we are watching someone’s adventures, message, or next big project. I know that in 2016 through 2020, it was the next apology video to be published, as cancel culture took the internet by storm. I still have a hole in my subscriptions. That hole is a Jenna Marbles-sized missing piece. I can’t help but feel she was the wrong creator to be “canceled”.
There is a whole playlist of apology videos, and they don’t have the same level of delivery as the one she put out. We all yearn for the day she blesses our feed with a hilarious commentary or an overall banger of a video, but she keeps her word.
Our society needs more creators like Jenna.
Not every internet creator story is this clean, though.
Recently, in the wild world that is X, Shawn Ryan responded to Leah, known as ‘theleahfiles’ on X, after she posted about her episode not being released on the Shawn Ryan Show and shared his LinkedIn list of investments in questionable companies. The internet was locked in and divided again, or at least I was, because Shawn Ryan is someone who allows various perspectives on his show to talk about interesting topics, and it is very well produced and seems to be marketed as an everyday American warfighter, veteran, ex-CIA contractor. I enjoy his kind of messaging and journalism, but seeing the long list of questionable companies, even from a veteran, was hard when we all just want to know the truth and trust the personalities we give our energy to.
Surely, we can all agree that fully releasing the Epstein files is necessary to bring true justice to our crumbling society, even if it ruins the systems in place. Maybe a total rebuild is exactly what we need.
I try to tell myself maybe some people don’t mind blood-money or receiving unethically sourced dividends, but who am I to judge? I do commend him for releasing the episode after Leah’s response in a raw, unedited, clipped form. As someone who worked in video production and deeply values journalism, facts, and unbiased reporting, seeing it handled that way was refreshing, even if there are still plenty of unanswered questions.
That’s a whole other rabbit hole for another day.
French philosopher Guy Debord called it the Society of the Spectacle, the idea that modern culture replaces authentic life with a curated system of images designed to dictate how we live, what we buy, and whom to admire. Writing in 1967, Debord warned that ruling structures manufacture celebrities as behavioral models to keep us passive consumers rather than active creators. He couldn’t have anticipated the modern algorithm, yet he mapped out the exact way of the digital cage we willingly scroll through today.
But that spectacle has shattered. Traditional gatekeepers lost total control to the internet, giving rise to basement podcasters, hiking streamers, your neighbor down the street, powerhouse figures like Tana Mongeau, and creators turning their homes into free 7-Elevens. Whether you call it hyperrealism, technofeudalism, or a wild new digital renaissance, the old systems are cracking.
The voices breaking through, from internet fixtures like Brett and Serena to polarizing heavyweights like Shawn Ryan or Candace Owens, are infinitely more compelling than anything Hollywood has manufactured in decades.
Not to say these creators or internet personalities are all perfect. In a world driven by metrics and platform algorithms, personas can easily be bought, curated, or faked, and having brand deals or corporate sponsors doesn’t automatically make someone a sellout to the donor class. But having worked in video production, I also know how hard it is to fake raw, continuous live-reality.
When a stream runs live for two or four hours straight without a script, a safety net, or a production crew hiding in the wings, you can just work out when a person is being genuine. It is an unedited slice of life in real time. Is that style of raw, long-form content for everyone? Probably not.
But the beauty of this decentralized landscape is that if a particular streamer or creator doesn’t hit right for you, you can just keep scrolling until you find whatever box or oasis speaks to your own wavelength.
Our new Hollywood is the internet. But as traditional media loses ground to rage bait, podcasters, and short-form content, the burden of discernment falls back on us. In a landscape where the deepest sponsorship or corporate director operates behind the scenes, it’s crucial to look closely at whom we engage with and support.
Not everything on our feeds carries the pure, unscripted authenticity of a Brett Rank stream or Serena Neel video, and many others, I am sure.
That is why I hold a deep appreciation for the creators who refuse to abandon their morals for a bigger paycheck or push us into a labeled box. In a noise-filled world competing for our attention, tuning in to genuine human energy is more than just entertainment… It’s how we navigate the chaos.
I call it “serenity in the splash zone.”
The storms of a breaking society, political psyops, and overwhelming media are all around us, and you can’t always escape them. But by choosing intentional media, creating art, and staying anchored in what is real, you can find quiet within the noise. The splash zone is everywhere; you just have to find your peace inside the storm.
Share your favorite authentic creators in the comments below.
