Why Influencer Culture Can Be Harmful
By Kiara Lin
Social media platforms have expanded immensely in the past few years. They have taken over the lives of many for better or for worst. The term “influencer” coins from the jobs that social media has been able to gift many individuals. An influencer is much different than normal social media marketing. The person becomes their own brand and often times we see influencers reach a high celebrity status. Influencers are making a vast amount of money just for posting to their social media platforms. An influencer payout is beyond what most people with a college degree or more could ever earn. While they are paid a large amount to share their content there comes a lot of problems that follow.
How do Influencers Get Paid?
There are three types of influencers, macro, micro and nano. A micro influencer can have as low as 100,000 follows whereas macro climbs near the millions. According to Business Insider interview with Jour’dan Haynes, a micro influencer, she can earn up to $600 per post (Bradley). Further, there is a formula that some influencers follow which is $100 for every 10,000 followers. The deals rely on an influencer’s metrics and more specifically their usage rights, exclusivity, and timing (Bradley). Looking into a macro influencer like Alix Earle who has over 3 million followers on each TikTok and Instagram charges a much steeper rate. Earle charges anywhere from $40,000-$70,000 per post depending on the brand and what they are asking for (Gottlieb). The hope for brands that pay influencers is for their audience to buy their products. Earle uses makeup, healthcare, fashion, and every day items across her sponsored content. The rate of one post for Earle is the annual salary for many with a Bachelor’s degree or higher.
Disadvantages of Influencer Culture
Influencers have taken over the position of role models to their audience, which often include younger viewers. Their large following as well as the luxurious lifestyles they get to live due to their paid posts leads to unrealistic lives for many. Many of these influences promote unrealistic body and beauty standards. Given their influence this can cause their followers to develop self-insecurities. Given that their content is all on social media often allows for filters and edits that their audience does not know about. A common video to see on TikTok is called “What I eat in a day” where users show a vlog of their daily food intake. When searching this video there is now a message on TikTok stating “you are more than your weight” and gives links to resources for support and treatment. It is safe to say this message now appears due to the eatings disorders that have dispersed due to these types of unsafe videos. Some of these videos can be rather insightful such as a body builder’s diet or following along with someone’s journey back to a healthy lifestyle. However, they are often harmful as they show “skinny models/influencers” barely eating to help maintain their physique.
Additionally, back on the topic of Alix Earle, a 23 year old who is making millions of dollars every year as a newly college grad is mind blowing. The job market is tough for newly graduates without experience in their desired field. Often times the pay is too low for the cost of living. Given many other individuals the same age as Earle are struggling to get by can cause harmful comparisons. While it is not the influencer to blame for their success, it is just human nature for negativity comparisons to flow through one’s mind. It is admirable to watch young people succeed in a new way, but realizing that everyone is on their own time track and journey is a message one must take time to comprehend.
In an article published on Slate, an influencer, Lydia Keating, shares her thoughts on the darkside and her personal grief. Keating has over 1.7 million followers across her social media platforms and was once paid $18,000 for a singular video (Keating). She shares her cross struggles between her duties and showcasing her authentic self. Keating explains how she is also on the other side of influencing as a creator. She explains how she sees someone who looks perfect wearing a $70 shirt and she buys it. When the shirt arrives she does not have the flat stomach and poreless skin that the other influencer has and is now disappointed. Recently, Keating has been looking at the health affects after finding out her mother’s childhood daughter had committed suicide. She began to look at the social media pages of the young girl who took her life. Keating sees no signs of unhappiness based on her social media profiles. She shares a confidential document by Frances Haugen, a Facebook user, that suggests these platforms are aware of the harmful posts. A leaked study that Haugen exposed focused on teen girls (Keating). “17% of teen girls said that their eating disorders worsened after Instagram use, and 32% reported that the app made them feel worse about their bodies (Keating).” Keating couldn’t help but think this contributed to the ending life of the young girl. She calls for more responsibility of platforms such Snapchat, Facebook, TikTok, etc.
Sources
Bradley, Sydney. “How Much Money Instagram Influencers Make.” Business Insider, 16 Jan. 2024, www.businessinsider.com/how-do-instagram-influencers-make-money.
Gottlieb, Katy. “An Influencer Scoop: Alix Earle.” Horizon, 30 Jan. 2024, lhshorizon.com/11908/features/an-influencer-scoop-alix-earle/#:~:text=According%20to%20Time%20magazine%2C%20in,as%20the%20Drunk%20Elephant%20D%2D.
Keating, Lydia. “I’m an Influencer, and I Think Social Media Is Toxic.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 1 Feb. 2022, slate.com/technology/2022/02/instagram-tiktok-influencer-social-media-dangers.html.