Gen Z and young millennial content creators have invaded Washington Square Park with microphones and camera crews, desperate to find the next viral moment around the iconic fountain.
Chill habitues are Tik’d off at what’s become of the funky, 10-acre, cannabis-infused Greenwich Village mainstay.
“Washington Square Park is known for being unhinged, and I love it. But now, it’s unhinged in an annoying way,” Julia Martin, 22, told The Post. “They’re here and causing a scene.”
Rain or shine, the traffic-hungry TikTokers search for their next target for a shock jock-style ambush interview — a type of content creation on the popular app that’s become overwhelmingly popular in New York.
Social media celebs such Davis Burleson, known for sideswiping strangers with purposely annoying questions on his hit show, “What’s Poppin? with Davis!” and Sydney Street, known for her matchmaking efforts, found success using the bustling Greenwich Village park as a stepping stone to fame.
Now, a wave of wannabes can be found treading the same path, peppering strangers with pop quizzes about culture and history or intrusive questions about their dating nightmares and clothes.
Those looking to just picnic or people watch without being bothered are out of luck.
On any given day, visitors might find themselves up against the likes of @mayaacra, known for quizzing strangers about hypothetical relationships, or @nycommute, who has pulled in thousands of followers after a string of videos asking random New Yorkers how much they pay in rent. Several accounts have found success in the park by offering strangers money, asking if they’d keep the cash or double the amount and pass it along to the next person.
“[I film here] just because it’s busy,” content creator Karim Jovian, who has built his channel by asking random people about the questions about social issues.
“There’s a large variety of people,” he told The Post. “You get [a full] range here.”
“It’s just a good place to interview,” his friend Frank Legend added. “A lot of different people.”
These trafficmongers may rake in the views, but relaxation-loving locals like Martin thinks their presence brings out the “worst” version of the park.
“It’s historically a place for people [to] perform and for friends to just hang out. It’s just supposed to be a community space,” she pointed out. “It feels like it’s being taken advantage of for ‘likes,’ and for [content creators] to make money.”
Brooklyn resident Alex Loucks, 24, thinks it’s “crazy” how much Washington Square Park has changed since she graduated from NYU in 2020.
“Now it’s like everyone’s making content out here,” she said. “It’s a hub for social media.”
She confessed to The Post that the overwhelming influx of TikTokers into the park has made her — and her friends — even more wary of being approached than usual, knowing they are likely to end up on camera.
They’ve even joked, she said, about putting more thought into their outfits when going to the park, just in case.
“There’s so many people coming to, like, interview you,” she said. “I don’t mind it — it’s just that we see it a lot. I’m just here for the sun, I’m here to chill. I feel like you have to be on rather than just, like, hanging out at the park with some friends.”
That’s if you can even find space to squeeze into.
“It’s a lot more crowded,” Laura Marques de Silva, another recent NYU graduate who frequents the park, told The Post. “Especially around the fountain area — that [area] is, like, a nightmare.”
The 22-year-old East Village resident admitted she’s occasionally fearful walking through in case a relentless social media star stops her.
For others, assuming someone is approaching you for online content is second nature — and they’ve gotten used to the carousel of creators on the make.
“When someone approaches you now, you just expect [them to be doing a TikTok interview] instead of just, like, asking for directions or something,” sunbather Jordan Kleinschmidt, 24, told The Post.
“When you first started walking up, I think we were all kind of thinking, ‘I wonder if she’s gonna, like, ask us to do something for TikTok.'”
