[full deep-dive long episode is live]

Social media is a breeding ground for poor-shaming working-class mockery, and I’ve been collecting evidence for the past 4 months to prove that. What we are seeing is the re-invention of the harmful working-class stereotypes present in early 2000s/10s media regurgitated in our algorithms right now. We can look at how deeply intertwined identity and consumption habits to begin understanding why social media creates a hierarchy of lifestyles that shames those as the bottom and analyse the key theme of ‘distinction’ driving a lot of the hate and ‘humour’. 

I’ve pulled examples from my ongoing to prove just how social media fuels and reinvents the mockery of the working class.

Email: [email protected]

Insta – whatzaraloves

TikTok – whatzaraloves6

YouTube: Whatzaraloves

Podcast: Taboo on the Bus

Kyey references:

Books:

Chavs by Owen Jones

Journals:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.1814

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01634437231185966

https://napier-repository.worktribe.com/output/3176889

Articles:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/chav-caricature-comeback-tiktok-2020/

https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2021/09/02/how-the-medias-selective-idealisation-of-the-working-class-perpetuates-inequality/

https://consequence.net/2025/12/ricky-gervais-working-classes-mock-mortality/