We have a new Internet meme that is set to knock McKayla Maroney off her lofty perch. It's "Rich Kids of Instagram," and just as with Maroney, there's a Tumblr blog to peruse.
The Maroney meme ("McKayla Maroney is not impressed") was all about taking her rather ... well, unimpressed-looking image shot after her loss in the women's individual vault and adding that image into other scenes (like the Spice Girls at the closing ceremonies), showing she was "still unimpressed," the "Rich Kids of Instagram" meme is all about showing the profligacy that exists with these young people, who are posting images to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to brag about their wealth.
There's no need to Photoshop anything. The pictures speak for themselves, which means that they are less funny, and more sadly superficial and materialistic.
The hashtag for this meme, for those interested, is #rkoi. The hashtags these kids are using for their own images, though, make them easy to find on social media: #mansion, #privatejetstatus, #champersinthehottub, #personalchef, #ferrari, and even #abundance.
The site itself has been around since last month. The furor over the excesses exhibited by the images hit just this week, though.
Among the pictures are things like a $107,000 bill from Nikki Beach in St. Tropez, a boy pouring Dom Pérignon into a lake, another waves a huge foam finger from the passenger seat of a Ferrari, and so on. All of these images are coupled with a gilded frame.
It's the perfect site if you're interested in getting riled up in terms of the One Percent vs. 99 Percent battle, Occupy Wall Street, or just plain class warfare.
On Wednesday, contacted by email, the site's founder, who wished to remain anonymous, said the site was doing quite well. "We find anonymity is a hard thing to replace," adding that the site is "more popular than most ideas that take shape over a few glasses of wine. It's going well."
Sounds like this site "took shape" over some wine. Perhaps the site owner him or herself is in the One Percent.
It's unclear if these images are submitted by those poring over social media looking for relevant and profligate hashtags, friends of the wealthy, or the wealthy themselves. After all, the easy sharing available with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and more encourages over-sharing.
[Speaking of over-sharing, there is concern that these kids may be placing themselves or their families at risk by doing so. The embedded video teaches 'safe photo sharing practices.']
And while the old saying is that "money can't buy happiness," it's not clear that is the truth when looking at these images.
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