Snark Spaces: For Community, or Controversy?

Source: @isasaltergoo

Online discussion forums have granted free real estate to “snark spaces,” a quippy title for the public discourse that dissects and drags public figures, usually on the social networking platform Reddit, and all under the guise of critique, accountability, or just plain entertainment. Previous sites that have either since shut down or are now largely abandoned include Skinny Gossip, 4chan, and even Yahoo, if we’re really going there (don’t worry, I’m not). 

What Are Snark Spaces?

Snark spaces can cover a wide variety of topics and take place really anywhere, including an out-of-classroom chat where classmates can complain about their programs (you do you), but popular topics online surround social media influencers, mostly female, and mostly beauty and lifestyle content creators. 

Time and time again, women in the public eye have been dragged through the mud. But, once the party days are over and motherhood has been assumed, it seems that celebrities are shown a little more respect, even when expressing their (maybe a little extravagant) tastes. What happened there? 

Social Media And Online Criticism

Recent notions of relatability as captured on social media platforms invite a sense of real-life conversation between the viewer and the creator. Before YouTube or online chat rooms, this had never really been seen–you couldn’t leave a comment under a Marilyn Monroe film to tell her that white isn’t her colour (and even so, you’re wrong). Now that creators are speaking face-to-face with a camera, people might be getting the idea that they really know their (least) favourite public figures and what goes on in their lives. 

Since around the mid-2010s, interest has diverged from socialites to influencers, with the proliferation of social media. These influencers are the subject of admiration and criticism, as their carefully curated public personas provide a constant stream of content for online discourse. Even in the early days when young model-singer-actresses’ bodies were ruthlessly critiqued, there was still an essence of desire, even repressed jealousy, that ran rampant in discussion forums. 

More recently, it seems that because of this consistent flow of online content and the increasing familiarity viewers feel with influencers’ lives, the line between critique and cruelty has obtrusively blurred. Audiences no longer engage solely as spectators–they become self-appointed commentators, watchdogs, and sometimes even adversaries. What might have begun as snarky accountability or social satire has, in many cases, evolved into full-time surveillance cloaked in irony. So, are snark spaces really about holding people accountable, or have they become digital echo chambers where criticism is less about the influencer and more about the frustrations of those watching? 

The Digital Era and Parasocial Relationships

I’d like to unpack why this shift of discussion from envied nepo-socialites to outwardly despised internet celebrities is happening. 

Let’s go back to 2015, and I’m not talking about Chelsea ankle boots. Reddit’s expansive audience was becoming less male-centric and a little more female-occupied, even with a ratio still around 1:3. It was around this time that discussions started to change. While before people may have posted, “What cool YouTubers do you guys recommend? :)” it suddenly became, “Why does this Instagrammer make me irrationally angry?” 

This shift could be linked more directly to the rise of parasocial relationships. The more people feel they “know” influencers, the more betrayed they feel by any perceived dishonesty–it becomes personal.  

The Case of Caroline Calloway

I’ll be honest, before writing this article, I didn’t know much about Caroline Calloway. I used to see her name thrown around occasionally on X (FKA Twitter), but didn’t engage due to my blissful ignorance and perhaps the foresight that I’d be deleting the app in a few years anyway. 

For those who are also majorly unaware of the situation... when I tell you that people tore her to shreds. Calloway was accused of scamming her followers and was eventually forced to apologize for some of her actions. She’s still an active topic online, including on Reddit, where users continue to pounce on her latest endeavours. 

The Dangers of Reddit

Reddit has and is continuing to affect digi-careers in increasingly consequential ways. Influencers have been literally, physically followed from point A to point B by obsessive fans who, at some point, realized they lived in the same area. In one instance last year, a Reddit user posted about their experience seeing an influencer with their young family at a children’s hospital out-of-state. This influencer will remain nameless, but the various (and alleged) circumstances regarding the recent goings-on in their life have been chronicled in this toxic space. 

The most critical point I’m trying to make is that much less has happened in the American influencer sphere since the celebrity drama of the 2000s, and yet these ordinary people who just decided to make videos one day are now being subjected to levels of scrutiny that perhaps couldn’t have been predicted in the early days of YouTube. 

The Problem With Influencer Snark Pages

Unlike the polished PR machines behind celebrities, many influencers lack the resources to shield them from relentless critique. The result? A new era of digital micro-celebrity where everyday people are thrust into highly visible roles without the structural protections, and where the public feels entitled to judge not just their content, but their ethics, parenting, finances, and even their trauma, with little to no restraint. 

This environment reveals less about the influencers themselves and more about the emotional economy of the audience–those who watch, comment, and participate in snark. When confronted with their participation in these spaces, I have witnessed multiple users defend themselves in the name of contributing to a greater community, like providing room for fresh-faced content creators who can just be themselves. How long will Reddit be happy with them? #SnarkersGonnaSnark. 

The Future of Snark Spaces

So are snark spaces really about accountability, or are they a form of digital catharsis for people who don’t have the personal relationships to express themselves? At the end of the day, we may all just be the main characters in someone else’s snark thread–so let’s be mindful. What kind of community does it make for if we hold strangers to standards that we often can’t even accomplish ourselves?