On Influencers: How Much Of It Do They Have?

Yes, I know. It's been a while. And instead of greeting you guys with yet another indecipherable allegorical mess, I bring something that is potent in it's relevancy and unprecedented in it's ignored-ness. (yes i just made up that word) (yes this is my blog I do what I want)

So, influencers. *cue a deep seated sigh of confusion from every human being out of adolescence*

In case you've been living in Plato's cave with your WiFi unplugged, here's a little crash course: Those people on the internet that dominate social media with their presence and have followers for seemingly no conceivable reason except that.... sometimes they look good? I'm kidding im really not, some of them do have talents (usually in the field of make up but we'll get into that later).

To help you place this formless noun a little better - some include James Charles, Brent Rivera, Emma Chamberlain, all of the Kardashians and Jenners and on and on and on.

As for the actual influencers themselves, I hold myself accountable to following some of them in the past. There is literally a hair's width line between actually good content creators and those who hide behind a sponsored post and a pretty face, and I admit I have trouble navigating it. So if you wonder why I'm eternally skeptical of any new artist that has a brand built on personality and Instagram, now you know.

I'm not here to comment on how an influencer's job must be done carefully, you can watch John Green's amazing summary on that here.

I'm here to comment on how influencers influence the world around me today. And as someone who has an insider's look into the average 21st century teenager's world, I have some tea to spill.

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When I was doing some research for this article, I typed 'influencer' into the Google search bar.
This is what showed up:

Guys, guys. This is a job. And I get it, they act familiar. They talk into their cameras as if they're confiding a secret - with 500,000 people - but they do this for a living. It will be a fact that no matter how much they care about their audience, that very audience are their consumers - and their bread and butter depends on you consuming what they create. They have bias in what they show you, and they most definitely don't show you all of themselves. Influencers will be invested in getting you to spend - its their job, whether they realize it or not.

It is so important to remember this; the fact remains that the kind of numbers social media is pulling is inhuman, and no one can truly comprehend the kind of success they have. You can't believe that all of them realize the implications of the views and likes.

So, we have 30% of this crowd between 18 to 24 years, all high of off recent success and limited life experience - most of whom do not even comprehend the sway they hold. And then another add 22% of those, consuming content at astonishing speed. If there was ever a doubt that this is an Internet generation, put it to rest.

And I'm not judging them based on age, I am myself a 15 year old fetus. I'm saying that there is no way that all of them have the life experience to suitably gauge the effects and consequences of their posts.

My next point: coming back to the makeup. 46% of sponsored content on Instagram mentions fashion and beauty. Combine this with my self-esteem-deficient-body-issues-sufficient generation and wait for an epidemic of self confidence issues. Oh wait, it's already here.

I have nothing against these things, I'm a self professed make-up lover. The problem is that the sponsorships influencers partake in so often hit the soft spot of adolescents in 2019. It just sounds a tiny bit like exploitation to my ears.

The next bone I have to pick is all the drama they get themselves into, and how quickly their followers eat it up. I'm a stark believer of the 'you do you' philosophy and have zero judging for whatever they do, I have an issue with the fact that they all do it publicly. Their lives are soap operas, and the TRP is through the roof.

(Sidenote - Those who begin to bring their personal lives into their content immediately lose any respect I have for them. It's really obvious some of them do it for the clickbait, and I doubt your character if you use your personal friendships and relationships to make money.)

Back to the point, Some of these people have insanely complicated lives and their followers learn that your life must constantly be reminiscent of a roller coaster. Spoiler alert: it doesn't. This culture indulges the worst aspects of human judgement and gives the common public the right to comment on insanely private issues that they have no right to say anything about. (This is directed to everyone who sends hate online, it doesn't matter to who)

In conclusion, they have a lot of influence, and sometimes it does more harm than good.

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- end of rant -

The reason I wanted to make this post was my recent social media hiatus. It really gave me a little space to think about the prevalent culture that I'm a part of. And honestly, it came from worry. Just desperate worry. Of course, this was a byproduct of the Internet age and there's no escaping it. However, today's youth needs to hear these things sometimes. They need to be aware of the negatives of the media they consume, especially when the media is newly developed and the cons are so cleverly hidden.

Internet fame isn't too different from regular fame, but it does make your life a lot closer to your followers. It's important to remember that sometimes. 

The word 'I' has been used 27 times in this article, so you know these are the purely the opinions of a flawed-kind-of-self-centered human being. Feel free to argue with me in the comments!

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And if you somehow managed to reach the end of this monstrosity, you're the real MVP. Thanks for reading.