Why I Think It’s Time For The Influencer Culture To End
In The Day And Age When Our Time And Attention Are The Most Valuable Currency We Need To Be More Selective
In the last couple of years advertising and marketing changed drastically. Social media and influencers basically took over and for many, being an influencer became an entire lifestyle.
Recently there were lots of different conversations about how social media can be harmful for mental health, how it’s harmful for how young people see themselves, how it sets unrealistic expectations for how people should live their lives or what they should achieve.
I know that in the grand scheme of things, with everything going on in the world, this seems insignificant. But our time and attention spent online generates real income and money for people. This is true for online publications as well as social media influencers. I think it’s time to be more careful with where we spend the only thing that can not be replaced: our time.
When clicks and likes generate money, we should demand more and better. Once upon a time influencers were people who had an opinion, took a stance and endorsed products and brands they genuinely liked, believed in and trusted. Nowadays with everyone being able to join affiliate programs, with a number of platforms that connect influencers with brands for “collabs” and with people basically turning this into a full time job, it turned into nothing else but trying to sell anything and everything. Influencers don’t influence anyone. They sell.
A lot has happened in the past two years. With spending so much time at home, unable to keep myself busy with my usual hobbies and activities, I spent a lot more time on social media and one thing became painfully obvious:most of the people who push us towards how and what we consume have no actual opinions, would not touch controversial subjects, would not speak out on current issues and events. They do their best to defend their personal brands, their curated feeds and their carefully curated content, always upholding the illusion that their lives are perfect. Seemingly nothing could hurt them.
When war broke out in Ukraine, I took to social media to find the most recent news and to find out how people far from the actual conflict can help. Once I took a break from scrolling on Twitter, I opened Instagram. And I was gobsmacked. Most influencers ignored what was happening painfully close to all of us. I thought maybe it’s too early and surely they won’t be able to ignore this. But I was wrong. Some ignored it altogether, it was business as usual with pre-recorded ads, sponsored posts, carefully selected pictures and a lot of effort put into trying to look relatable. Some shared a post or a reel created by someone else and some invested their time and energy into writing up lengthy posts about why they aren’t the best source of information in this situation and why they don’t feel qualified or educated enough to share information.
To some extent, they are right. They aren’t qualified. But then how are they qualified to advertise things like “natural birth control”? I’m not jealous of people making a living through and from social media. How often do we hear how much work goes into it? I honestly believe it’s a lot more work than a full time job. What I have an issue with is the excuses. The lack of effort and thought. I find it extremely distasteful, especially because I saw that it is possible to share information, share that you care and help out.
I saw a small number of influencers actually sharing their opinions, sharing all the resources they could find for how people can help, sharing credible sources for information.
We all know how powerful social media can be. We all know that if someone with over 200.000 followers shares a link where people can donate and just 500 people donate $10 each, that is already a significant amount of money in this case.
If influencers don’t use their platforms to help when it’s needed, to share how people can help, to show solidarity, why should we continue to fund their picture perfect lifestyles with our clicks, time and attention?
Call me harsh, call me petty, but in recent days I unfollowed every single influencer who stayed silent on what is going on on our doorstep.
I think it’s time to stop enabling people and enriching people just because they post pretty pictures. With a large following also comes a large amount of responsibility and accountability.
