Influencers & Influences

The general understanding of Influencers are the people who create and share content regularly and build their reputation for their expertise or knowledge within a measurable data, such as no. of followers, engagement metrics, brand status, etc. In my view, they are generally content creators who are also fondly known as YouTubers, Vloggers and Professional Streamers. E.g would be PewDiePie, Casey Neistat, Adam Neely, Mr Beast, to name a few.

Now, the word influencers come from the root word ‘influence’, which means the power or capability to have an impact or effect on someone or something.

So what naturally comes to mind is that we would think that an influencer is someone who shares information or knowledge that would have good impact on others.

These content creators through any form of social media platforms generate different contents to be put out there in various forms, whether live, written or audio.

A little background story on social media is that these social media platforms started making its presence in the mid-1990s. The first few online services that existed was Geocities, Classmates.com and Sixdegrees.com. Sixdegrees.com was especially unique at that time as it was designed for real people to connect using their actual name; and was known to be “the very first social networking site” as it contained features like profiles, friend list and school affiliations.

Then in the 2000s, social media platforms like Friendster and MySpace started gaining popularity, followed by the ever popular Facebook (now known as Meta), YouTube, Twitter (now known as X), Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and of course TikTok that changed the entire influencing industry.

So, what started as a platform to connect with friends, people started sharing their lifestyle, interests, knowledge, problems, etc. Such sharing in no time influenced the perspectives of people in a huge way as we see at present.

Everyone can be an influencer today. You and me can be one, too. Celebrity now in its own capacity is also known as an influencer like Christiano Ronaldo, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift and many more. Every influencer are known to build or have a community made out of followers who find that their content resonates with them.

So what are influencers sharing.

There are whole heaps of stuff influencers can share. Some share their day-to-day lifestyle, from the time they wake up, the meal they prep for themselves through the house cleaning bit.

Then there are many who share on food recipes, introducing their own way of prepping certain types of food like vegan. Everyone’s recipe seem to be special in their own way.

Then of course, we have researchers, enterpreneurs, spiritual leaders, Psychotherapists, and many more who share their work and experiences, spiritual path, motivational & inspirational word as well as their research studies. Examples are the Dalai Lama, Eckhart Tolle, Gary V, Brene Brown, Esther Perel and so on.

Now, on a wider scope, we would like to think that what influencers are sharing could probably be harmless. This has a lot to do with the authenticity & values they bring in their content which would circle in their connections or engagements with their followers.

Certainly, depending on how those contents are consumed or interpreted, there could be diverse impact on the community as a whole. Take some of the socialite or media personalities for instance, where their sharing heavily focused on body and appearance that could lead to many people experiencing a condition called the body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) or familiarly known as body dysmorphia we see today. What is body dysmorphia? It is a mental health condition where people become so obsessed about how they look even to the slightest flaw which is usually unnoticeable. This also could be what drive people to be anorexic or having eating disorder. Yes, this situation is not new but the rise of these socialite influencers whose sharing are constantly focusing on body perfection so-called, making cosmetic surgery a part of living because they can, and showcasing the high life because their reality is different from many ordinary people, are amplifying an existing broiling issue. This explains why parents are so concerned over what their children are consuming from these social media platforms.

On the other hand, we have spiritual leaders who constantly share words that gently guide us to navigating life with balance and in balance. That life is not perfect and there will always be scars. How do we keep ourselves composed and face life as is with patience and self awareness. But these sharings are often viewed as boring & dull.

So if you look at the stats between a socialite and a spiritual leader, you can tell who has the highest engagement and views.

Between excitement vs dullness, it is an easy choice that we will choose excitement. But wouldn’t dullness help us slow down and pause? Wonder why the world we live in is so anxious? Something to ponder on.

Being an influencer, it is not always the highs of it all. There are a lot of work behind-the-scene that churn out the post you see or the writings you read or the video you are viewing. People want to see the good end result but rarely people want to understand the struggle of a content creator behind the scenes.

There are a lot of content out there to be shared, written upon or crafted out for viewership. But there is also only so much that can be leveraged on, hence so many similar contents out there. How authentic and sincere the creators are, we won’t know. People say to be successful in any endeavours, including being an influencer, consistency is one of the key ingredients. Technically, we all know the importance of consistency but within this consistency, not all creation are supported. Do you support everybody’s content even if it’s good? Or do you support those who you think is of high status and of renowned personality? Think again!

An influencer is an interesting so-called profession and a much trending one.

There have been numerous articles written about surveys done on Gen Z and their career prospects. Many opt and choose to be influencers compared to the traditional career like doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. According to the write up by Jennifer Liu on CNBC Work segment who picked the result from a new report from Morning Consult which is a decision intelligence company states that “Some 57% of Gen Zers said they would like to become an influencer if given a chance.” Morning Consult’s brand analyst further states that TikTok makes it all seem more possible because of its  “No-frills, direct-to-cam and low editing content.” This has broadened the amount of people who feel influencing is accessible to them. From all they are viewing because of their constant time spent on screen, they build an impression that these influencers can generate money easily with less work done.

Time has changed, and advancement in technology and AI has contributed hugely in how things work around us including the entertainment and knowledge department.

Personally, to be an influencer, it is crucial that the content shared out help the community to grow as human. I mean how many lavish birthday celebrations parties posts can one consume? How many beautiful dresses or suits can one unbox? How many big mansions and the lavish lifestyle can we take in? It is not about wrong or right consuming such content, but think about the consequence. This was something said by a spiritual leader whose podcast episode I listened to recently. It is ok to want to be inspired to be something great but our brains and mind are also very clever in telling us how inadequate we are when we are overly consumed with those lavish content we watched. We can easily forget about our reality.

With social media platforms being our companion especially for the young ones who are growing up in today’s tech era, it would be good to see influencers be mindful of their sharings; and as consumers, we be mindful of what we choose to feed our eyes and brains.

It comes back to economics, where there is no demand, there will be no supply.

And to change the world, change our content consuming patterns so collectively we can bring anxiousness in us down before we can smell what world peace is.

So many of the current happening today which is causing restlessness in the world energy and vibration felt by us has to also do with our choices as an individual to collectively influence the overall behaviour of the society.

If you are a content creator, create something that help the human beings thrive to reach self-actualisation.

“We are all natural influences to one another.

Stay close to our hearts,

Be one who leave good imprints for the other to flourish.”

Good luck & stay blessed!