Influencers Flood The East End In August: Opinion

Are you someone who is influenced by influencers? They seem to be the jet fuel of internet posts with millions of followers worldwide. Their existence is a pure result of the explosion of the relevance of social media. Now one of the oldest bastions of historic social order, that being the East End of Long Island is dominated by young twenty-somethings from God knows where, sharing their views and wisdom — along with intimately staged selfies to get attention.

The East End is a literal tale of two cities. One centered on wealth, position and status and all the accoutrements that follow such a position. The other has to be the hardworking , full-time population who service the community all year round and many who have been riding the rising tide of real estate values to become "land-home-rich" themselves, or the others still struggling month-to-month to find affordable, year-round rental housing.

Beautiful places attract beautiful people who worship beauty. Vanity is a human trait. In summer, such folks find their way to what they call the "Hamptons." With a pricey pair of sunglasses and some smart summer clothes they populate the East End for a few months, or a few weeks or even for just a day. They leave behind their overpriced studio apartments in the city to circulate the East End. After all, everyone, eventually, is a tourist somewhere at some time — that, too, is human nature.

Then there are the very rich, who seem to invent yearly how to get out east. Heck, Henry Ford went to his grandson’s wedding in Southampton Village in his private railroad car. Now it’s helicopters and jets or a caravan of luxury SUVs! Make no mistake, these folks live in a different world than folks like this author. It is this world that many of the visitors to the East End pretend to exist in during their visits.

Years back, Montauk was the exception, with hardworking, blue collar folks and families renting affordable motel rooms for a family vacation of swimming, fishing or camping. However, now Montauk has gone from the so called "unHamptons" to the "ultimate Hamptons!" Montauk seems to now be the center of these "influencer" folks with cell phone camera hoisted at all time for video selfies.

Everything, like social trends, comes in waves. Right now, the wave is crashing in on Montauk and the rest of the East End. The older one gets, the more one understands and knows change is always happening. Who can truly predict what the next 20 years of change will do for the East End? When these "influencers" are like the "hippies" of the past. What will replace them?