The Demise of Influencers

Influencers. They’re among us. Everywhere. Getting that perfect shot.

It seems like we can’t go out in public without seeing an “influencer” “influencing” through taking pictures or videos. I wrote this sketch (see attached Tik Tok video) as an extreme version of what we all have encountered or become (the entire video is on my YouTube channel, link below). Everyone wants to be unique while “influencing” on their social media accounts, but often end up getting the same type of shots (hence the scenario in the video) or speaking identical inspirational quotes and all of a sudden it turns into white noise. The truth is, leading influencing don’t magically come from us wanting to be “influencers”, they come when we have something of truth and value to say.

I love creating videos that poke fun at society and also myself. And this is definitely poking fun at myself. I’ve been that person in public, insisting my sister or a friend get a picture of me so I can post it to keep the social media cycle running. Don’t get me wrong, I think social media can be a beautiful platform to connect with friends and share art. What an amazing opportunity we have. I can share my videos, writings and creations to anyone in the world. I would consider Vocal a social media and it has pushed me to write more, so I am very grateful for that.

But when thinking about “influencers” in my own life, I would have to say that the greatest influences I’ve had are not people on social media, but those in my physical life. That comes as no surprise to any of us, but more of us are waking up to that. The people that shape how I want to live my life are the ones that are consistent day in and day out and make an effort to be present in their life and love others. The ones who have taken time to take me aside and help me grow. The ones who have not given up on life but have decided that even after going through a lot of hard stuff, life is still beautiful and worth showing up for.

This isn’t an article to get you to quit social media. I’m mainly writing this to get my 600 words quota so I can post my Tik Tok video (the main reasons I think it got overlooked was because it wasn't quick enough to capture short attention spans and didn't flow well with the algorithm). Yet again, Vocal has pushed me to write through this contest, and I am glad to have written this. I will say, however, that the next time you are influencing or getting frustrated that your pictures didn’t turn out well, take a second to laugh at yourself. One of the most paramount things I have learned over the past few years is to laugh at myself. This “life hack” makes living more enjoyable and helps me to not take everything so seriously. I also encourage you to check out the account @InfluencersintheWild (this hilarious account inspired this video). They post real behind the scene moments of influencers taking pictures and videos in bizarre places or scenarios. It’s worth the Instagram visit.

I often wonder, what would happen if every social media account disappeared overnight? As we’ve all seen in recent headlines, the future of Tik Tok is unknown and with the threat of it being banned in the US it got me thinking about what messages we are putting out there. About two years ago there was a gold rush on Tik Tok, everyone rushing to get viral. And many people did. A few of my videos went viral and I can’t deny it felt good, but now in an instant it could be gone. Influence is fleeting and if we have the opportunity to go viral or speak into the lives of others, we should use it for good, because it won’t last forever.