Social Media Influencers

It’s very easy to become an influencer these days. All you need to do is have a camera, good lighting, and do some crazy things which will probably rocket you to fame. Millennials and Gen-Z’s these days strive to be famous on social media platforms, to apparently ‘create awareness’, using their popularity and wide accessibility. These influencers can persuade others with their virtue of trustworthiness and audiences by appealing to the wide audience they cover.

Questions are being raised about them like ‘Who are these people?’. These are people just like you and me, who show their passions like cooking, travelling, gaming or comedy on the internet. And by posting about these passions on social media, they have gained popularity, giving them the opportunity to shape and influence the people’s mind and changing their opinions through blog posts, video blogging, posting pictures and tweets and so on.

Influencers are also known as ‘Trendsetters’. Social media influencers are people like beauty bloggers, fashion bloggers, toy unboxers and anyone who has wide audience coverage nowadays. People spend a majority of their time watching, liking, viewing, commenting and forwarding the content by these influencers. We turn to these influencers not only for entertainment, but also for information, advice, company and comfort.

The impact of social media may be desirable or un-desirable. Social media influencers may inspire their audiences to behave pro-socially or healthily, but they may also show bad examples of drinking, smoking, showing off wealth, and even criminal behavior. In addition to that, influencers also affect the people’s psychological behavior, and mental health regarding body satisfaction or materialism.

Social influencers have a platform to showcase their lives, and everything they like. These people use social media to advertise for third parties for commercial purposes. For example, brands pay influencers to showcase and advertise their products in the content they create. Influencers like Kylie Jenner, a 22-year-old social media star, occasionally posts on her Instagram, showing off her wealth and advertising for brands like Louis Vuitton to Sugar Bear Hair, gets paid for every post.

Some social media influencers lie under the minor category, i.e., below the age of 18 years old. With major brands signing these people into contracts for paid advertisements, a growing number of people, adolescent teenagers and their parents are striving to make profits, which raises questions about the legality, ethicality, and philosophy.