Date of Award
Spring 2025
Thesis Type
Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Liberal Studies
Advisor(s)
Todd French
Second Advisor
Emily Russell
Third Advisor
Mistie Watkins
Abstract
This thesis examines the rise of social media influencers as modern-day saints within the cultural and economic framework of late capitalism. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from religious studies, media theory, and cultural criticism, it argues that influencer culture does not replace religion but retools its structures—ritual, authority, devotion, and community—for the digital age. Through detailed case studies ranging from Hailey Bieber and Taylor Swift to Ballerina Farm and MrBeast, the paper explores how influencers shape identity, mediate ethics, and mobilize affect through algorithmic rituals and parasocial relationships. Influencers perform a form of digital sanctity that parallels traditional hagiography, guiding followers through curated routines, aestheticized discipline, and aspirational consumption. This framework reveals that contemporary social media culture functions as a theology of the algorithm—where visibility becomes virtue, engagement becomes worship, and consumerism becomes the dominant mode of belief. The study concludes by arguing that influencer culture does not represent the secularization of society, but the reincarnation of religion through the aesthetics and economics of digital capitalism.
Recommended Citation
Hourihan, Riley R., "The Ascendance of Influencers: Saints of Capitalism in the Digital Age" (2025). Master of Liberal Studies Theses. 118.
https://scholarship.rollins.edu/mls/118
Included in
Anthropology Commons, Arts and Humanities Commons, Communication Commons, Other Economics Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, Sports Studies Commons, Theory and Philosophy Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons
