Having trouble finding the money to pay for Christmas gifts this year? Have you thought about live-streaming and boring people with your humdrum existence? It turns out that you could make a decent amount of money just by broadcasting the mundane details of your daily life. One “influencer” is making $4,000 a month simply by live-streaming his daily life, complaining how broke he is and begging viewers to donate money to him. America is incredible.
Jovan Hill, who said he is unemployed, allegedly makes up to $4,000 per month by begging his social media followers to make donations to help pay for his monthly $1,300 rent for his apartment in Brooklyn, his $100 monthly T-shirt habit, weed, and video games. The New York Post labeled Hill as a “digital beggar,” meaning instead of asking standing on the cold streets of New York City and pleading for cash from strangers, Hill broadcasts his life from his apartment and urges people to give him money. Gotta admit, begging from your warm apartment sounds a hell of a lot better than holding a cardboard sign and an ice-cold metal pot from the freezing, urine-soaked sidewalks of NYC. To be fair, “digital beggar” could be a term used for anybody pretending to be “grinding” on Instagram, Twitter, and Periscope asking followers to fund their “commentary,” “art,” or “comedy.”
A recent New York Times profile on Jovan found that his following is more than happy to hand over their hard-earned money so that Hill doesn’t actually have to work. Hill has over 200,000 followers on various social media platforms such as Periscope, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Patreon. Hill, who goes by the handle @ehjovan, utilizes those outlets to speak to his followers, talk about pop culture, discuss his mental health, and request money. Nice work if you can get it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqMQ43yFEVg/
Hill recently made a plea to his followers to give him $7,000 that he urgently needed. Broadcasting from his $1,000+ iPhone X as he smoked blunts, Jovan repeatedly begged his audience of over 7,100 people to give him money. “I’m very poor today,” Hill said. “So if you want any tax write-offs, please donate to the Jovan charity.” And it actually worked. Strangers, who call Hill their “unemployed king,” started donating funds into his Venmo and PayPal accounts.
Strangers from all over the country willingly give money to their favorite “unemployed influencer,” who in his own words said, “tryna be the gayest influencer… mentally ill so you’ll never be bored.”
https://twitter.com/eflow_egiap/status/956171137100275712
The 25-year-old Hill had previously been attending Texas State University but dropped out following a “manic episode,” despite being a few credits shy of graduating. Jovan got a job at a concession stand at a movie theater but then quit after a few weeks and didn’t even bother picking up his last paychecks. “I was making less money at the movie theater than sitting in my room live-streaming five times a day,” Hill said. “So why go to work?” Can’t blame that logic. Sitting at home smoking weed > shoveling movie theater popcorn while breathing in toxic fake butter fumes.
So good for Jovan, he’s found a way to do something he loves — talking about him and his life, and people are paying him handsomely for whatever solace he provides to them. You can’t really blame the man for putting himself out there and people are voluntarily gifting him thousands of dollars. Maybe the real story here is that Americans have way too much disposable income.
[NYP]