'Influencers': Will the tide ever turn?

[InAMess2023]

Just that really. Apologies in advance for the rant...

Latest all over my news feed (I don't actively seek these things out). Is Molly-Mae sunning herself in the Maldives in a ridiculously expensive over water villa after flying business class. All the comments are 'omg boss babe' or 'she works so hard', etc. etc. etc. Even saw that apparently she was at one point running PrettyLittleThing! (Rather than being given the token role of 'Creative Director' and showing herself sat in meetings with her LV notebook). The girl would not know a day of hard work if it hit her on the photoshopped behind - a typical day is getting up late, filming herself in Starbucks, having a few photos with her baby before she hands her back to the nanny, watching Shrek or Harry Potter and doing a quick video talking about her boring day.

I know that I will get comments to say that I'm jealous, and you know what, yes I am? Imagine becoming that rich and that famous (not that I have any desire to be famous whatsoever) just from applying to a reality TV show and having sex on said show. To me it's everything that's wrong with today's society - will it ever change?

I slogged my guts out for six years at uni (with a further six now ahead of me) and yes I have a pretty nice life, I go nice places and I buy nice things, and I have a lot of earning potential in my future but difference is I will always have to work hard. I don't have children and I've made the decision not to but if I had a daughter I'd be gutted if this was her role and career model rather than a doctor, lawyer, or hell even a politician (though they've let the side down a fair bit lately - Liz I'm looking at you).

This isn't a rant about Molly-Mae specifically by the way just using a good example from today. It's the whole culture that seems to be everywhere and I genuinely cannot wait for the bubble to burst - I'm just not sure when/if it will...

Thank you for coming to my TED talk 😂wow felt good to get that off my chest!

I think people will always want to fantasise about being rich without having to work hard though. It’s a sort of modern equivalent of Cinderella only without having to be dependent on a man and there have always been those stories.

My next door neighbour is an ‘influencer’ having set herself up as a parenting expert based on no qualifications whatsoever. The tantrums through the wall and the fact I read with her son due to ‘lack of support from home’ tell a different story. It’s all so false, no idea why folk can’t see it for the pile of 💩 it is.

It is depressing - the lies, the consumerist aspect, the narcissism, the whole lot really. I don't see you as jealous.

I reassure myself by thinking that it's a minority of people who are "under the influence". I don't see many of my peers sucked into this trap to be honest. But I suppose in our thirties we are too old and too busy trying to keep up with our real lives to be majorly at risk.

But I do worry about those who are a bit younger being susceptible and it isn't their fault as they have been more immersed in this from a younger age.

I fear for the future generations. I've heard more than one child say they want to be a you tuber when they grow up 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yes one thing I'm thankful for is that I just about escaped the age of full social media (I remember Facebook when it was used for uni networking only!)

I suppose it depends on what you consider "hard work".

However, it might not be physical work (or academic) as far as I can tell they are rarely "off" havent to consider how they look and to build the next content.That's got to take its toll - time wise and mentally.

Personally, I think the world would be a better place without influencers. Not something I'd do as it does seem like they sell their soul - experiencing both extremes of the love/hate spectrum.

I don't entirely understand your grievance. You're intelligent so you know it's a curated snapshot that has no basis in reality.

I could make my life look like a dream by only posting when I'm at the theatre or having champagne with old friends or at some trendy product launch for work, or meeting some famous client. Or walking in the stunningly beautiful nearby countryside at sunset. Wowzers. In reality I spend 90% of my time at home, working alone online and poking around in the fridge hoping DH won't make blue cheese toasties because they stink the house out. This is true for everyone who has an insta life.They can;t even enjoy a decent moment because it has to be photographed then photoshopped then posted instead of lived.

You say you studied at uni for six years - that is a massive achievement which surely must have given you deep satisfaction and fulfilment. You know you can focus. You know you can research and articulate your ideas.

I am currently involved in a project about influencers. The project manager knows all about them and the digital nomadic lifestyle and it comes over as deeply unhappy. It's vacuous, anxiety inducing. They are obsessed with how many followers they have. The photos are all fake and the cognitive dissonance between what they portray and the reality takes an emotional toll.

You said, you wouldn't want to be famous. A good friend of mine was very famous for a few years. They couldn't walk down a street without being accosted. Couldn't have a quiet drink in a pub or coffee in a cafe. Life was an endless tedious round of grinning for selfies with total strangers who squealed and asked the same banal questions over and over. They handled it brilliantly but it was excruciatingly boring. And then their star faded and they found it weird being invisible again.

If you have a good, fulfilling life, using your brain, making autonomous choices then you are winning and it really doesn't matter how successful someone else's curated life is or appears to be.

I could not name a single influencer because I’m not on that hellhole insta and I don’t follow them. Surely if everyone stopped following them they’d disappear?

Thank you... it wasn't so much the way that I feel about it, more like the absolute lack of hope for our younger generation and society as a whole because of the amount of people (not just young impressionable teenagers but a fair amount of grown adults as well) who genuinely DO believe that what they see is that person's real life, that they do genuinely have that teeny tiny not at all FaceApped nose (I can't lie, I love a FaceApp as I hate my massive conk but my real life friends and family know this and yes they do laugh at me) and that they themselves can also achieve it by doing... well not much really. Whatever happened to having real aspirations?

By the way your reply did make me laugh - a lot of my insta is me in far-flung places drinking champagne etc. but it's also full of my cats and what I've had for tea... and the reality is that I'm sat on my sofa in ancient loungewear pouring mini eggs down my throat whilst having greasy hair and wearing no makeup!

I'm curious about this.

I left my degree for a job from the careers fayre. I've spent the 6 years you've been at uni, and more, working. I now earn a decent salary and can afford nice things. I've got a toddler. We're admittedly not quite at luxury Maldives level, but we do well. I earn a lot more than average. We're comfortable. My husband has been able to be a SAHD until our son was nearly two.

If you had a daughter, would you also not want her looking up to me? Do you believe education is the only way to get ahead?

Is it a working hard thing? Do you perceive Molly hasn't worked hard enough? I mean, plenty of people have been on Love Island and not become as rich and famous. She worked hard at different things, but I don't think you can say she hasn't worked hard. I hate Love Island and everything it stands for, but it's a choice. Like Big Brother was in our day, and various other careers along the same lines beforehand... Working hard to some people is attracting attention.

I'm not sure the next stage - the "AI Influencer" - is going to better for society than the current ones.

I don't follow any of them, they don't interest me one bit and only show fake, staged rubbish. Who the hell cares?
Our society today puts value on this shallow type of trash when we have drs and nurses working long shifts on rubbish pay saving lives everyday.

The fashion will probably change at some point. It usually does.

I genuinely have no clue who Molly Mae is. I'm not sure I could name an influencer...Mrs Hinch?

Most people have absolutely no interest in this drivel. It's only everywhere if you seek it out

I've never said it should be just about education. I would like my kids (hypothetically as I'm not going to have any) to look up to anyone who knows and understands the value of hard work, regardless of what they do.

And no, I wouldn't say she's worked hard. I'd say she made a savvy business decision to pair up with someone with an already famous name, and managed to then pair up with one of the best managers in the business. I don't think she's ever actually worked hard for anything that she has, no. Even pre Love Island she was an 'influencer' living in a flat that her parents bought for her.

I'm not seeking it out that's the point, she's just on every news article and advert that comes up on my social media. Including on Facebook where I only interact with friends and family.

Agree. I've never ever seen posts or videos or whatever they are from any of these people, so they surely can't be too difficult to avoid.

Every year we were asked to get the pupils in our class to draw or write what they'd like to do when they left school. To begin with it was the standard type of jobs, but increasingly they'd put Youtuber or influencer. I'm getting older but to me that's not a proper job although some people seem to do very well out of it.

I just don't get the cult of influencing. A vague relative posts endless speeded up videos of her tidying the house - who is actually so bored that they watch that? Same with some kid making a fortune by reviewing toys.

How on earth did we grow up without this stuff?

I have no idea who most influencers are because I've no interest whatsoever in them , however my daughter knows who a few are from tik Tok and she has shown me some videos and I just find them very false and irritating to be honest.

Okay as someone who does work in this sort of business i can say, it is MASSIVELY hard work, harder work then ive ever done in a full time job ... WHEN YOU DONT GET PAID THE MILLIONS! once you have become rich from it then the job is easy! They dont even have to do anything if they dont want, they can just pay for someone else to do it all!

Before then its all, thinking of content, SEO, Video editing ( which takes me roughly 6 hours non stop per video ) and is actually other peoples full time job ( as in other people DO this as a full time job but working for other people)

Thing is, once your rich then you dont have to do any of that stuff, then its super easy and you can just rest on holidays taking nice pics and going to interviews.

If someone pulls the plug on Instagram they'll hopefully all go down the drain. Because without social media they are nothing and nobody.

ALTHOUGH most influencers are Frauds. in it for the money and if they wernt, they become it.

The algorithm is pushing this at you because you're engaging with it in some way. I don't see it on my FB, Google news feed etc

The tide is turning on influencers.

It’s discussed alot on social media recently. I don’t think they will disappear. But I think they will need to change alot. And I think the changes, such as being more authentic, less flashy, less lying to promote a product they previous said they don’t like will mean they make less money.

Or there will be less of them. With only a very few making decent money.

I have been friends with an influencer who is also a practising doctor. She makes a lot of money and has been around for a long time and still works full time as as a Doctor. She told me that a lot of them aren’t anywhere near as rich as they make out. Lots in massive amounts of debt and live very different lives to what they show. Some even do videos in houses that aren’t theirs. They are friends or families, to make them look more successful.

Many of them end up in huge debt and suffer, mentally, trying to achieve this ‘lifestyle’.

Amy hart is the one who gets my heckles rising!! She's local to me and her whole ghastly family are in on the act.

This. You must have clicked on it at some point and now it thinks you want to see it.
I keep getting videos of crabs with barnacles as I once watched a video.
I get adverts for diet food because I googled gluten free pasta.
I get suggestions to follow pages about the TV show friends. I do not particularly like friends. I just googled Matthew perry when he died and now it thinks I love friends.
You need to change your algorithm.

Edited to add, I've never even heard of this person let alone seen them pop up on Facebook. But I guarantee you if I Google her she will. So I'm not doing it!