To hate social media 'influencers'

[TH22]

Not sure the point of this post really, other than to express my dislike of social media 'influencers'. Am I the only one (and a miserable old fart at the age of 34) or do others not understand their purpose either?

Someone asked me the other day a question along the lines of, what would make me feel like I'd failed as a parent? My answer was 'if my future child decreed that they want to be an 'influencer' when they grow up.

I use insta (yes, I see the irony - but it's limited to bath time), but what I can't stand is seeing so many teenagers either doing irritating dance routines, plugging themselves or products and just generally living life with the sole aim of gaining as many likes and followed as possible. I just don't understand! Kind of makes me feel sad.

I am aware that plenty will say they're doing no harm, but this is just another reason why I get worried the way our future is heading!

Thoughts?

NB - fully aware I may get called old and judgemental!

YANBU

I'm a bit of a hypocrite because a follow a few interior design influencers with similar size/style houses to mine so I appreciate the inspo. But it gives me the rage when there is NO sign that anyone actually lives there. No washing baskets, slippers, waste paper baskets etc anywhere. Or they've strategically put an armchair in front of a set of drawers. Yeah that makes sense

Or when they have kids and there is absolutely no sign that they exist. So they either have zero toys or they're all shoved to the other side of the room just to take the photo which is just so pathetic

And don't get me started on mummy bloggers. Cringe to the max

Influencers can make quite a lot of money from brand deals, sponsorships, collaborations etc and from the few influencers I follow (for a hobby) I do not find their sponsored stuff over the top in relative to what they also put out on SM.
There is a lot of back work that goes into it from thinking up new ideas for videos (YouTube) to testing things they promote on insta (unless you are someone who just does it for the money instead of actually liking a product), networking, editing videos and pictures. I’m not an influencer, I have just watched videos of ‘behind the scenes’ and most influencers have had to build up to making money through working a secondary job and usually spend their own money buying products/equipment. With the relentless internet trolling it’s not something I would be willing to do but I’m not sure I would be unhappy if my daughter decided it’s what she wanted to do as long as she was aware that there is a shelf life for this type of industry

My friend runs a youtube channel with over 700k subscribers and makes 6 figures, she's 24. It can be very lucrative but shouldn't be a sole aim in life, she also has the backup plan of being at university with a degree in business management

It's a lot of fakery IMHO.

@Scruffyoak

All fake.

I know someone in real life who is desperate to be an influencer. She's such a phoney! It's a saturated market, especially the whole mummy blog thing. She gets nowhere and still keeps up with all the photos. It's pitiful.

Only fans is straight up porn/sex solicitation.

@JoeCalFuckingZaghe

The big influencers though aren’t just “having fun” to build that following it takes so much work building the following, creating original content to the point where your entire life becomes social media. You literally wake up and be posting content from then until you go to sleep, and even then you need to schedule regular content. You’ll be negotiating contacts with sponsors about how many ads you need to post, not posting so much you drown the ads out but posting enough unsponsored content so people don’t get sick of you being a walking advert. It might afford a certain lifestyle to those successful but it’s not for the workshy that’s for sure, or those who don’t want to share every little detail of their life to build the foundations.

Even big influencers have the benefit of doing what they love for work and having fun with it

Their agents will do the bulk of all negotiations and most have content creators or the brands create the content themselves.

@Redhair23

I think they do cause harm in that they often are not transparent about gifts, ads and product placements. They encourage people to spend money and make others feel inadequate- its a shallow old world.

I would be massively disappointed if my dc ended up shilling zoflora for a living.

If you see any not being clear report them

It's pretty simple tbh

@dwiz8 absolutely I do

Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go on though...

Even big influencers have the benefit of doing what they love for work and having fun with it

If they truly love it that’s great. But my point was that it isn’t what it’s cracked up to be and they can lead down a worrying path.

Jawline is a good watch on this subject.

There was also a documentary about a young influencer, can’t for the life of me remember the name of it or her, but the social media following she had meant her family could rely on her for income. Massive house, luxury lifestyle, but when she was speaking to the cameras she looked depressed and like a shell of a human being. She had lost herself between her social media persona and her real state. She couldn’t quit because she had become so entrenched in the lifestyle and her family relied on her (I think her mum managed her) but I believe she said she wish she could stop. It was quite sad. But most teenagers who want to be social media stars don’t see the hard work, stress and negative sides.

Their agents will do the bulk of all negotiations and most have content creators or the brands create the content themselves.
Once you reach a certain level, but you don’t step into having a manager and agents. It takes more hard work that most teenagers especially will realise, and the exploitation side of the business is quite shocking.

I read something v interesting recently about a restaurant in America and how the owner handles requests of a free meal from these influencer type people

Once they've contacted him asking for a free feed he responds and says that if they pay for their meal he will then give a free meal to a homeless person

This has been the owner's stance for a couple of years and not one single influencer has ever taken up the offer. Can't say I'm surprised

These so called influencers will keep on peddling their nonsense, because people keep following them, because lots of people have social media, and have become sheep like, and seemingly can't think for themselves. Some people seemingly don't know how to cook, how to dress, how to put on makeup, how to clean a house, how to style a house, the list goes on. There will always be people who make money this way, because some people are addicted to this kind of stuff these days.

@Burnthurst187 I read the exact same thing about a restaurant in Greece.
The whole story provably click bait and just as fake as the influencers 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t follow anyone. I don’t have a problem with influencers though. The person I don’t want my child to grow up to be, is the brainless follower 🤷🏻‍♀️

(following someone who is funny or talented or whose opinion you do think is good - fine. “brand ambassador” bullshit, not so much)

@Redhair23

Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t go on though...

Oh definitely, although I would think most is due to the regulations changing all the time and it being down to interpretation more often or not

I worked with a charity a few years ago who fell into hot water as the asa had recently changed the regulations and they got caught up with it. Used to be only if money, services or goods exchanged hands but they broadened it to include any activity where a brand has a say on content. The charity had a few influencers who wanted to post and support a fundraising campaign but the charity wanted to check they were using the correct hashtags in their posts, so even though no money changed hands the influencers needed to have a paid ad sticker on everything

i can't really get worked up about it unless my DCs get it stuck in their head that they can do it too without a very good backup plan.

In past times the likes of Stirling Moss (who he?) advertised tyres, George Best (remember him?) probably advertised any number of things that i can't remember and James Hunt (I think) and Henry Cooper advertised the revolting smelling Brut. they were supposed to be aspirational products.

Then advertising turned into Brand Ambassadors and you get the likes of Attractive Footballers wearing particular watches or sunglasses, etc etc. So the person felt less like an advert. Products still aspirational.

Then came social media and companies quickly realised that all those people making YouTube videos or Instagram or whatever were the new aspirational types - if Ella (? i don't know any of them tbh) used X product in a vid, countless others would buy it. etc etc

it's just marketing.

It’s more the people who are naive enough to be influenced by it that are the problem. Why would you care so much about emulating a random person on the internet? I just don’t get it. Do your own thing!

(Also, I am not sure I buy that what is essentially posing for photographs is hard work in the way that nursing or teaching or caring or being an architect or an actuary or any other number of other professions are actually hard work. Which is fine for the individual, but is it really the over glamorised role model and career ambition that we want for our teens?)

Me too, same dislike of "celebrities" too (no issue with actors, comedians, musicians, authors, etc).

The only influence they have is over the unable to think for themselves stupid.

This is the exact same thing people used to say about people who made money by going on reality TV - bad role model, facile, lowest common denominator etc.

To my mind, if you can make a good living doing something you enjoy, without having to answer to anyone else or clock a set number of weekly hours, then you're killing it and fair play to you.

Of course we all have things which get on our wick, but if you don't like it, you could always just... not look?

Also without wanting to sound patronising, I did a big following cull for people on Instagram who I sort of hated, and I was surprised by how much better I felt about life afterwards. Exposing yourself to people who make you feel frustrated all the time isn't good for you.

I hate instagram it's feels like one big advertisement for celebrities. They will keep pushing their endorsements and ads for as long as people follow them. I always find it strange that adults reply to a celebs post writing about their whole life story as if they are going to engage is some sort of conversation.

@bendybarbarabee

(Also, I am not sure I buy that what is essentially posing for photographs is hard work in the way that nursing or teaching or caring or being an architect or an actuary or any other number of other professions are actually hard work. Which is fine for the individual, but is it really the over glamorised role model and career ambition that we want for our teens?)

No-one has any obligation to be a role model for your teen, other than you.

I despise mummy bloggers, selling their children’s privacy to the highest bidder. No matter how they try to dress it up, that’s what they are doing.
The other types of bloggers don’t really bother me.

You can only be influenced if you a!low yourself to be, so I don't go near anyone's look at me look at me look at me Im a champion attention seeker profiles, one look is enough for me to say no thanks luvee