Under the Influencers
FOR A FATEFUL WEEK in early August, the social media universe was focused breathlessly on daily reports coming out of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. For once, the suspense and fascination had nothing to do with Alabama football coach Nick Saban or his Crimson Tide, though the defending national champions were again picked as the preseason favorites. Rather, the world was captivated by the #BamaRush TikTok craze. In a development that could probably be fully understood only by TikTok’s all-knowing algorithm, videos posted by incoming first-years going through the high-stakes sorority rush process became a national obsession. TikToks in which the young women revealed their #OOTD (“outfit of the day”) garnered millions upon millions of views—and spawned additional videos about the phenomenon that further boosted the hashtag. As a graduate…