Who do influencers actually influence? Anyone?

[Cassie88]

The question is pretty self-explanatory.

[BlackBeauty90]

A friend's father once told her to get onto the internet & become an influencer. She's intelligent, successful & naturally attractive. What you'd think of as a good role model.

Her response was

Influencers only influence people who are stupider, more insecure, or more shallow than they are so how on earth can I be an influencer? They pitch idiotic ideas and people desperately follow those ideas thinking it makes them special when half a million desperate followers are doing the same stupid idea.

[Puppystarfish23]

I was reading a article about this actually the other day and apparently a lot of this influencing only gets people looking at the companies sites not a lot if sales being made actually from it especially at the moment with how the world is going people are too poor to buy £200 face cream because some insta model says it's good.

People are finally learning but they need to prioritise were there money goes

[BeMuse]

They influence themselves. That's the entire point... They are basically like lab rats. Software algorithms/bots post messages on their social media pages to give them positive feed back, give them likes, etc. to push specific behavior patterns in those people. The objective is to manipulate the "influencer" into a specific behavior pattern and convince them that they are the one who is actually influencing the bots. Welcome to the Matrix...

[BeMuse]

Social media was started as a military project for domestic spying and psychological operations. As the years have passed by, those methods have been refined and have been turned against ordinary civilians.

[Cassie88]

Was that an episode of 'The X-Files'?

[Cassie88]

There is no "matrix", that was just a silly B-grade film.

[BeMuse]

Nope. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

[BeMuse]

As an example LifeLog was officially canceled in January of 2004 as a government research project and launched in July of 2004 as a commercial startup under the name Facebook.

www.wired.com/.../

[BeMuse]

The GOOG was an original research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin which led to the founding of Google. It was funded by grants from the NSA, CIA, the Pentagon’s DARPA program, and the National Science Foundation for the purposes of spying on and tracking enemies of the state.

[BeMuse]

Even the internet itself was created by the American government for the soul purposes of maintaining communication during a nuclear war. You're denial of reality just shows your ignorance of history.

[BeMuse]

It's actually extremely easy to notice the bot comments of endless number of social media platforms. AI has a certain bland personality... YouTube is very obvious one. You'll see endless strings of either short very positive and similar comments to boost content/behavior they like or short very negative comments used to discourage content/behavior they do not like. Real people's comments do not appear for others to view. They are generally flagged for review and sent into a black hole unless the owner of the channel takes time to review each comment. For small channels that aren't promoted, real comments are more likely to be reviewed. For larger channels, they will generally never be reviewed and all comments will be bot comments. Those are your "influencers". They are actively bombarded with bot comments, likes, subscribes, follows or whatever. Their content is promoted to run psyops on the general public and create a narrative of public approval for their trend of behavior.

[BeMuse]

Go play around with OpenAI ChatGPT as an example. AI has a certain nonhuman fake feel to it. Once you have experience with AI it's very easy to recognize.

[KostasKouvalis]

No one. It's just one of those cases where they gave themselves a fancy job title to make their career sound more sophisticated.

Like, Airplane Cleaner = Valet

Janitor = Cleaning Technician

Garbage Man = Sanitation Worker

Car Cleaner = Detailer

Lazy Millennial = Influencer

[Cassie88]

This is so funny, because it's so true! :D :D :D

[KostasKouvalis]

I had a feeling you'd look that one 😂

[KostasKouvalis]

Thanks for MHO :)

[Reece12345]

People can really influence, and not just people "stupider" than themselves.

Think of it as more lateral in some cases: like, one scientist can influence another scientist.

It's not just politicians (although it is a lot).

[BCA6010]

Evidently some people value their opinions and sponsors, or else they wouldn't have thousands if not millions of followers.

The entire "influencer" trend and concept just goes to show how incredibly sheepish people especially in the millenial and even moreso generation Z demographic actually are.

[DaveJord]

Nope, but it's nice banner to have by your name. I guess some people think as an influencer that your opinion carries more weight, but seriously... no!

I guess if anyone ever says, I am influencer!!! I can say really, so am I, who gives a fuck?

[dustybiker]

The only ones I understand are people actually doing something. And they never set out to be influencers to begin with, they just documented their journey. Such as motorcycle traveler's.

[OddBeMe]

Seeing how much money some make, it might be just advertisers. Not so much “influencing” as being a content stream. Which is cool if you think about it.
It’s not just big corps with cable channels. Anyone can try their content and get paid. Democratized capitalism is the way forward.

[SweetTwistedSatanist]

I don't think they influence anyone. It's just a name for people who post content for people who have an attention span of 10 seconds before going to the next little clip

[AmyHew1tt]

Insecure people who have an easily influenced mind

[NathanDavis]

the millions of people that fuel their billionaire business all across the world

[Astarlessnightsky]

Their followers. And people who watch their content in general.

[NotTacocaT6969]

They influence those who are easily influenced.

[Cassie88]

Correct! :D

[Subarugirl]

Lol obviously, otherwise they wouldn’t exist.

[Cassie88]

Do you personally know anyone who has?

[Subarugirl]

An influencer who has influenced people? Yes lol

[Cassie88]

Just thought I'd ask. Are you an influencer? Just curious.

[Subarugirl]

Professionally no, but I have certainly influenced people

[KrakenAttackin]

Anyone can "influence" someone.

[Subarugirl]

@KrakenAttackin Thank you, my point exactly.

[Cassie88]

@KrakenAttackin Of course, but we all know that I was referring to those who appear on whatever social media site they're appearing on, and who try to promote whatever it is they're promoting, and doing this as a job or career.

[joeldalton]

Look at the sudden rise in Stanley insulated cups. Of course, they do.

[Cassie88]

The sudden rise in what?

[joeldalton]

These things

www.stanley1913.com/.../adventure-quencher-travel-tumbler-40-oz

[Rangers]

They influence children to be horrible people just like the influencers are

[OnTheLevel]

I suppose those who find them interesting enough to follow.

[Anonymous]

That's one of the most over used words on the internet.

[In_Trance]

Nothing. Absolutely nothing

[WhitneySnow]

A lot of people listen to them

[KrakenAttackin]

Women are followers by nature.

[Cassie88]

I'm not.

[Subarugirl]

Neither am I

[Minahh]

Those who let themselves be influenced

[Cassie88]

Exactly. People who are easily led, and don't really think things through properly before making a decision.

[Chazmatazz269]

Morons, exclusively

[Apple_Cider]

Themselves.

[Joker_]

they actually do

[Paulychicagoluv]

Not me.