Blog #12 EOTO Presentations

 Online Influencers 

    I am writing about what I learned from online influencers which was in the category Mediasphere. This term I found very interesting. The reason for this is because obviously many social media influencers are loved and looked upto by others, but in reality, it seems ike they are hurting us more than helping us. Unlike conventional celebrities or paid product endorsers, influencers tend to be viewed by their followers as trusted peers. This is a big deal to advertisers, because there’s evidence that your peers — more so than strangers or celebs — can influence your interests and purchases. Even small-time influencers — those with fewer than 50,000 followers — can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a promotional post. And while many of them maintain a posture of “calibrated amateurism” and financial instability, much of this is orchestrated.

 

   In reality, their lives aren't real. It is pretty obvious that social media is fake- from acting like you are always having a good time, to editing how you look in pictures, most people understand that isn't real. However, when all you see every second of the day is perfect people who act like they live the perfect life and get everything that they want, it is hard to be happy with your own life. We expect everything t to be perfect in our lives, but it isn't, and this can bring us down to wonder why we aren't good enough to be them. So even though influencers do motivate and help people, in reality, all they really do is create a fake life that is not possible for anybody to have.

 

     On the other hand, influencers are pressured to be perfect and act perfect online, when even they know that they are not perfect. Everybody has bad days- but they are not allowed to. If a celebrity makes a mistake that happens to every human on this earth, they will get canceled for it. If they do not come off as perfect online, they will get bullied until they fit in and look like the rest. Many influencers are not happy with their lives because they are being forced to be something they are not. So in reality, this is a toxic situation in both way, for the fans and the influencers and it seems to make both more sad than happy. 

 

https://www.theteenmagazine.com/the-negative-effects-of-influencers#:~:text=As%20teenagers%2C%20influencers'%20worlds%20can,and%2C%20unfortunately%2C%20create%20anxiety.&text=Our%20mental%20state%20is%20being,something%20you%20do%20not%20need.

https://yourstory.com/weekender/good-bad-ugly-age-social-media-influencer-facebook-instagram