Once-hidden coastal town facing disruption as social media influencers transform local life

A conflict is brewing connected a tiny luxury land 30 miles disconnected the seashore of Massachusetts, according to galore reports. 

Gorgeous scenes of Nantucket person been astir intolerable to miss lately connected TikTok and Instagram, with images of weathered-gray cottages, colorful hydrangeas and pristine beaches populating societal media platforms. 

Yet the land has seen tourism explode, according to immoderate residents and longtime visitors — and locals accidental they've go inundated by visitors, crowds and noise.

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"[Nantucket] has go thing it wasn't before," a 23-year-old beingness Nantucket resident, who asked for anonymity, told Fox News Digital. "It was benignant of similar a rustic New England abrogation spot, and it's been changing for the past 20 years."

The idiosyncratic added, "It's transforming into thing that [residents] don't recognize, and it makes them precise upset."

A conflict of sorts is said by immoderate to beryllium brewing successful Nantucket, disconnected the seashore of Massachusetts, betwixt section residents and extracurricular influencers. (iStock)

With nary span to the island, visitors cannot thrust oregon instrumentality a train. Nantucket is accessible exclusively by aerial and sea, requiring travelers to get by ferry oregon plane, per the Town of Nantucket.

For decades, that deficiency of accessibility kept crowds successful check. 

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"You either person to alert oregon instrumentality the ferry," J.Q. Louise, a Boston-based question influencer who has visited Nantucket respective times, told Fox News Digital. 

"I deliberation that's what's kept it exclusive for truthful galore years," she said.

That appears to beryllium changing, arsenic the land typically draws an estimated 2 cardinal visitors annually, according to the Nantucket Current.

Recent complaints astir influencers reached a fever transportation erstwhile a longtime store proprietor hung a motion saying, "No Influencers."

Store proprietor John Sylvia posted the motion astatine Four Winds Craft Guild, his Nantucket antiques and artisan shop.

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"I consciousness sometimes my store is utilized arsenic someone’s background, a stage," Sylvia told The New York Times.

"I don't person this hatred toward influencers," helium clarified. "It was much of a joke. It is simply a occupation we should look astatine arsenic a society."

Martha Stewart, pictured successful Nantucket successful July 2025, likes to sojourn the land to browse section auctions and big firm retreats, according to reports. (Scott Eisen/ Getty Images for Nantucket Historical Association)

Sylvia's partner, Jessica Jenkins, told the outlet she feels deluged by "people creating videos connected corners of themselves sipping an iced java and looking implicit their enarthrosis and doing a footwear footwear oregon whatever."

Fox News Digital reached retired to Four Winds Craft Guild for further comment.

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Content creators specified arsenic Paige Lorenze are defending themselves.

"If you telephone yourself a feminist but proudly enactment up a 'No Influencers' sign, it’s worthy asking who you are attempting to delegitimize, and why," Lorenze, who owns a boutique adjacent Four Winds Craft Guild, commented connected a now-deleted Instagram post.

Content creators specified arsenic Paige Lorenze, pictured, person defended influencers amid the treatment of tensions successful Nantucket. (Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Amex x Carbone Beach)

"I person nary contented with [John Sylvia's] shop, and I anticipation radical support walking successful and supporting land craftspeople," Lorenze told The Cut. 

"I conscionable deliberation Nantucket’s communicative is much generous than that sign." 

Fox News Digital reached retired to Paige Lorenze for further comment.

Some Nantucket store owners consciousness societal media influencers are giving them unwanted attention. (iStock)

In the spring, the Siasconset Civic Association, a nonprofit assemblage advocacy organization, projected recommendations to curb overcrowding. The Nantucket Select Board designated circumstantial visiting hours connected the footpath for July and August.

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"Bluff docents" — called rangers successful an earlier mentation of the connection — were approved to support an oculus connected activity, according to Nantucket Current. 

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The Sconset Civic Association besides projected turnstiles oregon gates astatine entrances, but those weren't approved.

Nantucket is astir 30 miles from Cape Cod by ferry. (iStock)

A Reddit station connected the Nantucket statement generated hundreds of comments.

"My household has a location there, and spot maine erstwhile I accidental the full land has nary request for influencers oregon to spell viral," a Reddit idiosyncratic said.

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The "island gets truthful crowded during the summertime that adjacent cottage industries person popped up to grip the crowds," the commenter added.

A Connecticut nonmigratory who has spent summers successful Sconset for 38 years besides said the land feels different.

A Connecticut nonmigratory who has spent summers successful Sconset for 38 years said the downtown feels much noisy and crowded than before. (iStock)

"The crowds are flashy, but they person much to spend," the person, who asked to stay anonymous, told Fox News Digital.

J.Q. Louise believes the tiny size of the land — it's astir 14 miles agelong and 3.5 miles wide — magnifies the problem.

"It benignant of felt similar a hidden gem, and it decidedly isn't hidden anymore," she said.

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Fox News Digital reached retired to the municipality of Nantucket, Siasconset Civic Association and Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce for comment. 

Ashley J. DiMella and Jessica Mekles of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.