What’s the Deal with Jacob Sartorius’s Social Media Proclamations?

Personal love letters aren’t all that personal when you’re sending them to 1.6 million Twitter followers

Chris Stokel-Walker
FFWD

--

Image: Chris Stokel-Walker

Jacob Sartorius, the 17-year-old former Viner, current TikToker and YouTube-launched pop star, wants you to know that he loves you deeply. “why are you so beautiful? like you’re even more beautiful when u try not to be….” he tweeted on September 27. “i love you unconditionally,” he tweeted on September 23. The same minute, he posted another missive:

Every one of the messages was replied to in earnest by hundreds, if not thousands, of Sartorius’s fans. They loved him back; they cared about him; he too was beautiful and appreciated.

Each of those would be a touching moment, were it not for the fact that Sartorius was blasting out the message to his 1.6 million Twitter followers, while receiving back intensely personal messages. It’s a curiosity of the modern social media star that their most relatable moments can become mass messages sent to…

--

--

Chris Stokel-Walker
FFWD
Editor for

UK-based freelancer for The Guardian, The Economist, BuzzFeed News, the BBC and more. Tell me your story, or get me to write for you: stokel@gmail.com