Friend or Foe? A look into Flex Mami’s Close Friends Story
Disclaimer: I accidentally wrote a fully structured five paragraph essay including referencing I’m so sorry.
If you don’t know her already, we’re probably living in different social ecosystems. Lillian Ahenkan, aka FlexMami, aka Flex, aka Big Brother 2021 contestant, aka social media powerhouse, is leading the pack in regards to the current digital landscape. With a following of 151k under her belt (via Instagram 13/9/21), FlexMami is set to make some significant precedent within the social media sphere. Being the founder of successful e-commerce store Flex Factory and now best selling author of The Success Experiment, Flex has opened the doors to yet another avenue to produce the content that has brought her to such fame. On September 1st 2021, Flex created her “close friends” story. You’re probably already familiar with the Instagram feature, it’s basically a second story for you to shitpost to a specifically curated list of followers who deserve more content than what is currently available to the public. However, Flex has put a price (specifically $9.99 but subject to change) on her shitposts.
The facts:
So, what do I get for the price of $9.99? Here’s what I’ve gauged. (For the full lowdown click here). The short answer? 20-40 stories, seven days a week, 365 days a year. On top of the current Tik Tok spams and questionnaires, followers of her close friends will be able to see 24 hours of Love Island recaps, Starburst flavour debates, and direct links to where to cop that luscious pair of pants she once wore. I like to think of it as her public story on steroids. More Tik Toks, more discourse, more information. Lastly, and what I find the most interesting, close friends subscribers will be able to engage with Flex herself through Instagram, while regular followers will be interacting with her community manager.
The for:
First and foremost, we love to see a queen winning! Flex KNOWS what she’s worth and has made the decision to monetise a portion of her content, because, well, she knows her audience will participate. Flex’s close friends story has been created in the name of mental health. Producing such thought provoking content on a daily basis warrants unsolicited comments, questions, and 24 hour surveillance from the public. By separating her content and making the choice to personally reply to those on her close friends list, Flex is able to preserve her time and energy and above all her wellbeing. It is okay to set that boundary, and while I do have some critiques, at the end of the day it is Flex’s space, and just because she has a large platform it doesn’t mean users should be entitled access to her 24/7. If you read through her “PSA” highlight on Instagram, you’ll get a first glance look into the idiocracy that floods Flex’s DMs daily. Demands from strangers to see intimate aspects of one’s life is not only emotionally taxing when it occurs from thousands of strangers on a daily basis, but frankly, a bit weird. I’m glad she has been able to recognise a problem, and set a boundary in order to preserve her emotional wellbeing. Coincidentally as I’m writing this, Abbie Chatfield posted a story that I believe most influencer’s especially Flex would resonate with:
“My life is my job. I have little to no privacy. I have to tell everyone everything on this platform in fear of something ‘leaking’. The service I’m providing for money is my existence”.
Whether your 2014 self likes it or not, Instagram has the power to produce amazing careers, and those users who have embraced that opportunity deserve to be paid for the time spent creating content. Flex has spent a metric fuck tonne of hours building a community and cultivating thought provoking content, and that emotional labour should be reimbursed. At first I thought, “Why didn’t she just create a Patreon?”, but then I was made aware of the percentage Patreon takes from their creator’s earnings (hint: it’s a lot). Flex is taking the power back by sharing exclusive content on her terms. Not to mention it doesn’t make sense to try and migrate such a large following from Instagram to Patreon. She knows her audience and what platforms they use, and made a smart move by keeping them where they already are.
The against:
I guess the question is, is monetising the self a good or bad thing? (edit: I actually have a lot of questions) Is she exploiting her fanbase or simply creating a safe space for her to connect with her following? As a loyal follower since the Bobo and Flex days, I have begun to feel more disconnected from Flex’s content (although I understand it isn’t her job to be “relatable”), and I feel as though her close friends list creates somewhat of a divide amongst her following. If I refuse to pay the subscription fee, I won’t be able to connect to Flex like I have in the past. Is this a flaw on her behalf? Or is it an issue I need to address within myself? Is Flex unintentionally gatekeeping her audience? While I understand the chore it is to reply to 151k followers asking where an item of clothing is from when Google image reverse search exists, it's bizarre that I won’t get the simple luxury of accessing an ASOS link to see where she got a shirt from. If I’m paying to have access to a close friend’s list, I need to see some DRAMA. I don’t just want a debate on why pink Starburst is superior, I need live footage of Flex eating said Starburst on the floor of her bathroom crying. Is that too much to ask?
Flex has written a book, been a host of multiple podcasts, and is the founder of conversational card game Reflex, and now she is set to post 20-40 stories a day, seven days a week to her close friends stories. How much of Flex’s content are we really consuming on a daily basis? All these creative avenues are a stream of income for Flex, and I can’t help but think it displays a low level of classism to turn a public avenue such as Instagram stories into a commodity. Not to mention the up and coming Future Group Chat, Flex’s latest project that requires users to apply to be part of an exclusive group chat intended to make user’s connect in a more “intentional” way. How much money are we spending to critically analyse? Is conversation and connection really worthy of commodification? “Because great content is worth paying for”. Is it? According to Flex I’m “daft” and “determined to misunderstand” her if I don’t get it, and hey, maybe she’s right?
Has the name Flex Mami transcended past an individual to now be more reflective of a brand? What is the future of Lil Ahenkan’s online persona? I’m interested to find out.
The future:
Is Flex changing the future of Instagram by monetising her close friends story? Will this set a precedent for future influencers? Will platforms such as Patreon and Only Fans become obsolete? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. It’s no doubt that Instagram has developed past a photo sharing platform, and the current CEO Adam Mosseri intends for the app to keep growing this way (Time magazine). Instagram has become a multi-purpose platform that’s transcended past latte foam art and beach sunsets (sorry Bo Burnham). The app introduced stories to compete with Snapchat, IGTV to compete with YouTube, reels to compete with TikTok. Let’s not even get into the capitalist black hole Instagram has found itself in with it’s in-app shopping feature. Could Flex’s idea encourage Instagram to compete with Patreon? A brief look on Twitter and TikTok will show you that most Instagram users are unimpressed with what's to come on the app. Why is Instagram trying to be the be all and end all of social media platforms, instead of embracing it’s features that users love the most; photo sharing. Perhaps Flex is just following the new trend of “casual Instagram”. A trend where users take a moment to forget about likes, followers, and aesthetics, and post whatever the fuck they feel like (read more here). I love the idea that we are fighting the unrealistic standards of Instagram, but is posting “casually” just another attempt to appear “cool” and “effortless”? That’s an essay for another day.
Is the preservation and monetisation of content a step towards social media being deemed as a privilege and not a right? Will other influencers jump onto the idea of a paid close friends list? I look forward to finding out. But as Flex said while I’m literally writing this; “be hot, have fun, and stay true to yourself because people will villianise you regardless”.