Social Media Influencing: The Slippery Climb
“To whom much is given, much is required”. We have heard it. But what is given to and what is required of social media influencers?
Being a social media influencer does not remove one’s humanity, but it confers a nobility and a responsibility that most fail to grasp, learn and live up to. Contrary to popular belief, social influencing is not a free ride to stardom and wealth. It can cost privacy, mental health and certain liberties. To make it to the promise land, influencers have to attempt a treacherous hike to the top that can easily lead to a hard and fatal fall down to reality.
A social media influencer is not required to know everything or to do everything right, but their position make of them an hybrid of human and god. They are held to a higher standard than most of us adhere to while still existing, on the other side of the screen, in their natural state of fallibility and vulnerability. The reader may not realize but most of the ancient gods were only followed by a few thousand dedicated believers whereas modern influencers are followed daily by millions. Their words and behaviors illicit alleluias and amens in the form of likes, hearts and other emojis.
Influencers pull on heart strings and imprint on the minds of people who, rightly or wrongly, look up to them. Their voices, their demeanor, their ways of thinking are copied and pasted in the lives of their followers. Not only do they entertain, they fill social and emotional voids. When this author thinks of a leader or of a social influencer, it brings mental images of the Virgin Mary. Mary was a human being upon whom was thrusted the burden of divine responsibility. An influencer is expected to know more, to behave better and to be wiser that the lay person. And that is totally fair if one voluntarily takes on the mantle of social engineers. Social media influencers are in fact social engineers. They have the power to effect immediate or long-lasting, structural, moral changes that can disrupt lives and entire communities. In addition, they get paid for using, exploiting and often manipulating their adoring followers. They exert incredible control over young people, especially. They make people think. They make people feel. They make people believe. So, when influencers lose control of their social experiment and get caught being who they are in real life, the consequence is not just disappointment. Their failures shake the very foundation many of us built our world on. It is disarray and desolation. It is also anger and unforgiving backlash. And if the wrong is an apparent insult of or disdain for the followers, the rebuke is swift and wicked.
Influencers are different from gods in that the cloak of their purported divinity can vanish in an instant to leave them in a state of complete nudity and filth. The cover of influence may often hide faulty characters and immaturity that are revealed to the world under pressure. Often people assume a persona or a role online that is an unconscious defense against certain social, more or psychological inadequacies. Now, depending on how that person became an influencer, they may think they can totally separate their online persona from their real life. However, they may have lost too much of themselves in trying to make other believe a narrative that deep down they do not believe in or, worse, they play the role of their true self. It also true that a person who becomes a leader or influencer before they have had certain life experiences may unfortunately see their natural development to mature adulthood slowed down and even completely halted because they spend so much time in a virtual bubble. But, bubbles burst.
The truth is social influencing is not a new phenomenon and is here to stay, one way or another. One of the problems today is that technology is advancing a lot faster than our society can manage to put up guardrails and draw new norms. The combination of social fame/power acquisition and fast and easy money making (on appearance) creates an irresistible draw for many among us looking to be relevant and making an impact. Many ambitious young people decide to hike that mountain. The climb is steep and the terrain is slippery. Just as for any difficult hike, the secret is to prepare, to know one’s weaknesses, to take pauses when necessary, to respect those ahead of you as much as those following you, and to be especially cautious when nearing the top.
