Nantucket Has A Point

Have you even been on Instagram this summer if you haven’t seen the now-viral “No Influencers” sign prominently displayed in the Four Winds Craft Guild? The shop’s owner, John Sylvia, posted the now-infamous sign in his Nantucket antiques shop last spring in response to the island’s surging popularity. According to locals, there are iPhones on tripods in the street & obnoxious lines & unruly crowds vastly exceeding the island’s capacity.

An online battle ensued, pitting influencers & brands agains Nantucket’s old guard (as well as countless haters who have never been to Nantucket but just have a bone to pick with influencer culture, whose comments are too disgusting and irrelevant to merit discussion here). On one side, influencers accuse their critics of sexism (content creators and brand founders are overwhelmingly female) and argue that using “influencer” as a pejorative term ignores the very real role influencers play in the retail and creative landscapes. (Hard agree.) Nantucketers, for their part, are exhausted by the changes influencer attention has brought to the island. Restaurants are booked months in advance, hotel prices are surging, and long-favorite places are now thronged by iPhone wielding tourists.

Does it surprise you to hear that I actually think Nantucket locals have a point?