Krish Parikh Week 9 - The Power of Social Media Influencers
The beginning of the 21st century was marked by the adoption of the internet into mainstream society, and the so-called “World Wide Web” was living up to the promise in its name. Everyone and their grandma were logging on, and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley (as they always do) saw the potential of a service which could connect the exponentially growing millions of people on the internet. Thus, in 2002, 2003, and 2004, Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook were founded to tackle this business opportunity—becoming the first social media networks.
Nearly two decades later, it’s hard to imagine life without social media. Seven in ten Americans are active users of Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube—spending on average two and a half hours per day. When Facebook was down for just six hours on October 4th of 2021, it made front-page headlines across the world and introduced many to the groundbreaking notion of going outside.
As these platforms have captured the taps, swipes, and likes of billions across the world, they have created the opportunity for any human being to cultivate an audience of millions overnight. Those who have done so successfully are known as influencers: celebrities on social media who have cult-like followings.
The power of these influencers and their audience on the World Wide Web is immense. When YouTube star Mr. Beast launched a fundraiser in 2019 to plant 20 million trees across the United States, he was able to raise over $20,000,000 in the span of three months. Moreover, when TikTok influencer Nyannyancosplay posted her lipsync to “Hit or Miss,” hundreds of millions viewed her video in a matter of weeks, and replicating her dance moves to the song became a global phenomenon. Observing these trends, many businesses and organizations (even including the White House itself) have begun to use “influencer marketing” to distribute their messages and products to the passionate audiences of social media stars.
Today, with the majority of Americans distrustful of the mass media and the government itself, many citizens are turning to social media to receive information on current events—information which drives major decisions like choosing who to vote for or whether to take a vaccine. Influencers, whether they realize it or not, are now a critical part of our democracy, and they must exercise caution in the content they post on the World Wide Web.
As the uncle of a different kind of web-star advises, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
My brain is fried, so I will take your topic and spin it a different way. Yes, it is the information displayed on social media that is being digested as facts, but the outlet that people trust isn’t social media but the connections social media has allowed people to create. I would also say we trust someone’s words based entirely on their character. There are some people in my life where I’m more inclined to believe them just because I like them. If they reposted some flat earth post and called it facts, I might second guess reality. And because social media is at its heart a medium to form connections, people who are active on those platforms seem to lack a healthy level of skepticism. And to the “with great power comes great responsibility,” I would say the power is in the hands of every individual within the interconnected web of social media. They possess the capability to be mindful of their tendencies and the space where they are receiving their information until something about the function of social media changes. Even then, I think separating someone's character and the things that come out of their mouths is an important skill.
ReplyDeleteHi Krish,
ReplyDeleteThe power of social media is truly astonishing. I remember sometime last year when Donald Trump had a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A video on TikTok quickly surfaced encouraging viewers to book tickets for the rally, but not show up. With an arena with 19,200 seats and an outdoor overflow area, only fewer than 6,200 people showed up, due to all the teenagers who listened to the video and spread it around. The Trump administration was furious, and this was an eye-opener to me and many others of how much can be done with the power of social media and the internet.
Hi Krish,
ReplyDeleteThat was a beautiful ending to your blog; I would not have been able to appreciate it if I had not been influenced to watch it by the endless praise it received online. You know, it's quite shocking to see how aware influencers are of their presence online and in the real world. Years ago, I found it quite comical that YouTubers found it necessary to place obvious warnings such as "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" or something of the sort. But now, I begin to see how one might take their opinions seriously; the concept of unintended consequences must always be at the back of an influencer's mind when creating public content. Thank you for bringing this situation to light.
Sincerely,
Sean Wang
Hi Krish,
ReplyDeleteSocial media has indeed become an extremely large influence upon society with mixed effects. Sometimes, it is difficult to believe how many people are willing to replicate stunts because they believe that it will grant them more popularity or admiration. Social media does seem to be growing in influence over time and currently, it seems that teenagers are the most influenced by it. This also seems to coincide with the growing amount of disinformation that people receive, such as the growth of the flat earth movement. Many supporters of it do online "research" through browsing the web for arguments supporting their ideas, cherry-picking to fit their narrative. On the other hand, social media makes it easier to spread awareness about events, offsetting some of the negative impacts.
Sincerely,
Raymond Yu
Hi Krish,
ReplyDeleteThe power an influencer has on social media is just insane. One thing they say and everyone likes it. These influencers can easily change minds of many people at their own will. This is both dangerous and good at the same time: If they know something's wrong, they can tell people about it so that people fix it. On the other hand, somebody can easily bribe them into giving false information to the public, leading to many bad things.
Sincerely,
Vivan Waghela
Hey Krish, I agree 100%. It's unbelievable how much power technology holds over the world. Nowadays, the majority of people probably wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they couldn't be on social media. It's a little concerning, but, unfortunately, it's most likely just going to get worse. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Krish,
ReplyDeleteI also believe that social media influencers have a lot of power, especially over the younger generations, since they're more prone to believing whatever they hear. I believe I wrote about this during the last quarter of blogging. Sometimes, the internet and influencers are a good thing. They have so much influence over most of the population and sometimes it is used to teach people the wrong things.
Hey Krish,
ReplyDeleteI think that while it is true that times have indeed changed in which content creators have a massive following, I don't think that it is their responsibility to "guide" their audiences. It may be true that with their new platform they are obligated to act more maturely and aware that their mistakes may be blown up way over-scale, but I believe that it is not the responsibility of the creators to mold their audiences, rather it is up to the audience to learn for themselves to decipher what is okay and what isn't.
Hey Krish!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right in how social media has absolutely consumed our lives. I can not imagine a day without going on Instagram, checking my email, and facetiming and messaging my friends. It is so mundane to me that we once lived without these pleasures. Like last week when Spotify crashed for barely an hour, I literally did not know what to do with myself. It is, in a way, so sad how dependent we are.