The death of the influencer
When we exist simply on the receiving end of curated narratives and product promotion, why aren’t we diverting our attention elsewhere?
Gone are the days where a “What’s in my Bag” video actually featured the lived-in contents of a girl’s handbag, as opposed to the now carefully crafted opportunity to sell you 6 unnecessary items to weigh you down, and then ultimately, sell you the bag.
In the wake of mass frontal cortex development, or maybe just the yearning for a more worthwhile way to spend our down-time, collectively, we seem to be digging a grave for the 2024, full-time, consumeristic, not-in-my-tax-bracket influencer. (Be sure to scan her headstone for a link to her amazon store-front).
It is the friendship break of the century, except, they were never really your friend in the first place, and every “meet-up” took a stab at your self-esteem and your bank balance, so actually, it’s the freeing escape from comparison and over-consumption.
It’s been 10 years since the term “influencer” encapsulated Zoe Sugg and Louise Pentland competing to see who could fit the most marshmallows in their mouth, with a few book releases and collection lasting perfection concealer advertisements here and there. Gone are the days where a “What’s in my Bag” video actually featured the lived-in contents of a girl’s handbag as opposed to the now carefully crafted opportunity to sell you 6 unnecessary items to weigh you down, and then ultimately, sell you the bag. (click the link to purchase from TikTok shop!!!)
It was fun before it became so monetised. It was fun when it was relatable. It was fun when we could see ourselves in these girls. It was fun, until it was not.
There has been a mass discussion trickling in to for-you-pages and newsfeeds addressing the way in which “influencers” just aren’t relatable anymore, and how watching perfectly curated day-in-the-life vlogs behind a blue screen at your desk job doesn’t feel inspiring, but pointless and unproductive. It’s posing the question of: “Why?”. Why are we consuming the lives of girls online who don’t speak for us, emulate our goals, or fuel our self-esteem? When we exist simply on the receiving end of curated narratives and product promotion, why aren’t we diverting our attention elsewhere? Cue the rising demand for blogs, educational videos, pop-culture commentaries, and long-form content from micro-creators.
In the wake of the mass discovery that overconsuming the creators whose content doesn’t delve deeper than their 6-step skincare routine or latest matcha order, has been a rapid turn of attention to more substantial content. This switch sees a desire to consume an ounce of value in the daily brain-rot doom-scroll session, ultimately fuelling content that boasts information, insight, and importance.
It feels like a mature shift, one that lightens an 8-hour screen time, and the guilt of scrolling away a Tuesday evening when the consumption consists of “articles I read this week” roundups, or even a 10-minute annotated breakdown of a Normal People scene. It is not to say this content is more valuable, or important than a “Get ready with me” by a girl you’ve never met, but the impact drastically differs. When you can extract a degree of insight or information that relates back to your own interests and goals, it not only adds to your self-esteem, but begins to eradicate some of the guilt that we tie to the inevitable doom-scroll. Maybe it is not so “doomed” after all, maybe we were just looking in the wrong places?
You will find relatability in the small creator thatYouTube pushes on to your home-feed, who documents her life not for a living, not to sell you the latest fast-fashion release, but because she simply enjoys the creative process of documenting her twenties. You will extract stories to share at the dinner table from the budding journalist who breaks down niche pop-culture moments from the 90s on TikTok. You will harness inspiration from the girl cooking her way through the world’s traditional breakfast recipes in chatty live streams. To consume content does not have to be a mindless act, there is so much substantial media online that will not leave you questioning your own aesthetic, life choices, or next purchase, you just have to make that choice to engage with it.
This is only the start of this discussion, it is early days within the demand for substance from the content we consume, but it is a shift that I believe will dominate the next wave of creators we platform. We are becoming radically aware of sheer amount of time we spend on our phones, at least let us take something from it before it is taken from us.