Who’s Influencing Whom?

One of the issues that’s really caught my attention is social media and the impact it has on young people today. In fact, in “The Sell,” I write a lot about the pitfalls of believing social media platforms offer up mindless, safe entertainment, like the old TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBS) used to do. You hear a lot of youngsters saying their career goal is to be a “social media influencer.” Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but is that really a job? What kind of career allows you to talk endlessly about yourself, your life, your social activities, with no particular training or education, no essential skills, nothing more than your phone…and get paid for it? Are these people nothing more than salespeople who sell the lure of easy money (selling all kinds of products, including themselves) to unwitting followers who are eager to learn the secrets to become influencers themselves? Are these influencers-in-waiting believing they’ll be millionaires by talking about this new blouse or that dish they ate last week?

 Mya Sanders, writing in the University of New Hampshire’s student journal, “SMI’s are not useless in society; they help shape the minds of listeners by emotionally connecting with them and being a regular part of their lives. They economically benefit society through advertising and selling their sponsors’ products. Additionally, the positive habits that an influencer implements into their daily routine will be adapted by their viewers, thus slowly making people healthier, and more confident in their beliefs and body image.” And yet, these seemingly wholesome and hard-working influencers seem to think it’s OK to do whatever it takes to become and remain successful. According to Sanders, “Due to the amount of work that it takes to hide persuasive tactics and sell the products of their sponsors, successful influencers cannot be lazy.” Hide persuasive tactics? There’s not much hidden here, including the amount of money on offer for some of these digital celebrities. Sure, the highest-paid Instagram influencers are making big bucks for each promotional post, but they’re successful celebrities (or reality show “stars”) whose tax returns list other jobs than “influencer.” Athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, singers like Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj and actors like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson are pulling in half a million per post to their millions of followers, but aren’t they making big bucks anyway? If their followers all left them tomorrow, would they have to take a job as a substitute teacher or bartend to make ends meet? Sure, there are some “regular” people who’ve used Instagram to catapult them to fame and wealth, but those cases are rarely listed in the “top influencers” lists. And they’re not making $500,000 and up per post. We hear about people like Nash Grier, a full-time dad who’s also a video creator and lifestyle blogger, who makes $41,000 for each promotional post that reaches his 12+million followers. Or Dubai makeup artist Huda Kattan, who used her success with 50+ million Instagram followers to launch a cosmetics line – and to pull in $91,000 per promotional post.

None of this is new; it’s just the medium that is. For generations, young women – and men – have thought that modeling would bring them instant fame and fortune, believing it would be an easy job with no real training required. As I discuss in Jack in the Box, modeling as a career is hard work and one that takes time to build. Going into modeling – or social media influencing – means keeping your eyes open, understanding the realities of that lifestyle and career choice and knowing that, like with athletes, only a very small percentage actually make it to the big leagues.