'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!

Also another point to clarify.... these are news articles, they aren't on my Instagram (my search page only suggests footballers and cats) and I'm not on TikTok. I'm not on about how it appears to me personally, but as society in general... the fact that they even exist as such in the first place.

But where are they appearing? What news source is this? Is it a page that aggregates content it thinks you'll like?

It's mostly via mainstream newspaper pages on Facebook alongside actual news stories... but again this is less about where I see them and more that they exist at all.

Don’t get me started. The Stephanie Vavrons and Sevda’s come across as the most narcissistic morons out there. Paid for doing Jack shit and all the huns lapping it up and telling them how amazing they are. Come eat with me, get dressed with me… I had to block them from coming up on my for you page. I do love Tik Tok for the true crime.

Also putting their autistic kids out there for views makes me sick.

I'm too old for all that malarkey and due to my very low use of social media I don't think I have ever come across an influencer.

I have a bit of a stubborn streak, I think my reaction would to never be influenced by an influencer. Surely it is all just a lot of self centred drivel.

Teenagers need to be encouraged to aspire to actual real jobs with some use to society.

I hope the tide is turning on the whole ' free stuff for exposure grift that ' influences have to do to pretend they are richer than they are. I think it really is a harmful ' industry'. Companies bypassing advertising standards rules by getting these people to pretend they really like whatever crap they are selling, and the influences getting away with not decaring paid ads all the time. The prevalence of z listers ' working' in Dubai. I can only imagine the type of work they were doing, but they were selling a luxury lifestyle to young people on the basis of apparently doing 'social media posts'. On the other hand, many young people say they want to be ' influencers', but most I know work really hard at school and are very aware ofcthe fakeness of that world. The Molly May Hagues of this world arent selling crap on Instagram instead of curing cancer. If she wasn't an influencer, she would be working in Tescos.

Funniest thing I read was on the blurb for her book (yes really) 'from managing to hold down a Saturday job at boots whilst doing full time college...'

You mean like we all did then?! Except at 18 I was working 20+ hours a week behind the bar in a rugby club and trying to avoid being groped...

My Instagram algorithm sends me laughing labradors, wholesome soup recipes and Ikea hacks - guess that's middle age.
I also get midlife magazine editors who have gone to live by the sea, flaunting their conspicuous wealth but never quite declaring whether their daily haul is gifted or paid. How anyone can be quite so tone deaf is quite amazing and beyond vulgar.

It’s all so vacuous - I hope the bubble does burst

Influencers are as appealing as a period blood 🩸 facial.

I think AI will take a lot of this space. Will make it easy for personalised interactivity and so fast and low cost to switch

I find it so stupid and ridiculous but if they have followers they will be there for ever. A job for narcissists for sure.

And the tacky bunch from Dubai 🤮

I just googled that woman MM and she became an influencer after being in Love Island. Double 🤮🤮

Meh, I disagree. They're just advertisers who work in marketing.

Until recently I used to work with influencers/youtubers and was friendly with quite a few of them. It's really really really hard work. It's relentless. There aren't ANY days off. Everything is recorded and photographed and comments etc have to be replied to. Agencies and agents are sharks for the most part.

I used to know a YouTuber (much more famous than Molly Mae). He worked round the clock, quite literally. He was enormously successful but all that success was on a knife edge as at any moment it could all go. YouTube withheld some of his funds from advertising for about a month.. it was thousands of pounds that he couldn't withdraw with no explanation from YouTube. When his personal life changed, thus changing his content, he lost a lot of his old followers which equalled a loss of income etc.

I don't know her personally but I have a few mutual "friends" with Molly Mae. I feel extremely sorry for her. She has a very lonely and sad existence. No friends to speak of, no solid future... a whole myriad of problems.

I don't have an issue with people being used to market products, or with people choosing that as a job, but I think young people should be warned that it's far from an easy way to earn money!

That we even have influencers sort of sums up society today really.

@InAMess2023 I totally agree!
it’s a truly tragic state when someone is considered an expert or influencer, just because they are putting themselves online – they have no qualifications, no experience and just post random shit that people absorb like crazy!

not sure about the role model argument that somebody put forward. Have you seen some of the photos of Karen Brady‘s daughter – I saw some online a couple of years ago and she seems to be a lingerie type model/influencer - which is such a waste considering her mum’s career and the options open to her!

I hope to god my daughter finds real life role models who don’t spout rubbish or sell themselves online!

I'm going to have to Google her aren't I 😖

Jeez, well that's 3.5 minutes of my life I'll never get back, she looks just like every other girl/woman her age. Dubai fgs..

Just what is the point of them 🤔

I’m too old to be influenced to purchase anything after watching a woman deep clean her sofa, I can see it’s all just a sub genre of advertising wrapped in content that might grab your attention and suck you in.

As for the ‘influencers’ who’ve given up real jobs to be full time advertisers on social platforms, who believe they are in some way famous and still maintain that they only stick to their own moral beliefs on their account 🤣…they need to give their heads a wobble- as the reality is they ‘work for Meta’ and enable it to raise revenue on their platforms without owning responsibility for the steaming piles of content they host.

OP I agree with you, I can’t stand influencers. All the ones I have previously followed have ended up behaving dishonestly eg Fleur de Force.
The annoying thing is that they try so hard to appear relatable but they are actually the opposite. And I can’t stand all the lovey dovey comments that are on every single post, exactly who is supporting these people?
It’s another career where many are from wealthy families to begin with (I know not all of them) but it’s what helps give them a leg up to have something to talk about in the first place and it grows from there.
It may be a hard job but they are generally not good role models for young people and that’s what it comes down to. They can basically say what they want because there’s no rules in place.
And I wish brands would stop the free stuff, it’s extremely wasteful. Personally I can see right through the ads but many young people won’t and it’s worrying.

Also I once saw an influencer in a clothes shop filming a fashion video and she left all the clothes she was talking about on the floor for the poor staff to pick up.

It's the fact they call themselves 'content creaters' when I actually am a content creator' (or similar, but for government that most irritates me. Others things as well though - the absolute banality of it, the consumerism, the vanity...

People fall for it. They make money because people believe it's real and live for social media

It is not the influencers fault people don't use their own brains

God, for a 'content creator' my grammar wasn't great! Too much wine...