Website of the Week: Rich Kids of Instagram
The Rich Kids of Instagram website is an Internet phenomenon that has come to illustrate the gulf between the haves and the have nots.
The site, whose homepage includes the strapline “They have more money than you and this is what they do”, was launched in 2012 and is a place where images sent in by spoilt rich children including Paris Hilton’s brother, Barron, are shared. In them, boastful teenagers share details of their luxurious lifestyles. Supercars, weapons, champagne, yachts and caviar are commonplace.
Amongst regular posters is a San Franciscan named Param. Operating from an Instagram account named @itslavishbitch, this especially indulgent 17-year old posts photographs of himself filling his lavatory with Pellegrino water, releasing $2,000 tied to helium balloons into the air and posing with nine iPhones. Of those who criticise him, he responded: “I don’t give one damn to what a peasant thinks”.
Another, Annabel Schwartz, 19, came to regret posting snapshots of her summer in St. Tropez on RKOI and told Goodmorningamerica.com:
“My friends and I don’t want to be associated with this… This is very embarrassing… We all grew up quite nicely but I don’t want to be embarrassed by the fact that I can enjoy myself in Saint-Tropez… Everyone here considers themselves to be a lot more substantial than their father’s credit card. I’m a fashion designer. My girlfriend goes to Cornell. I don’t want to be represented by my money and my vacation experiences”.
Readers of The Steeple Times are invited to submit their own images at their peril.
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