Blog #12

 Something I learned from 2nd EOTO:

Online Influencer

By: Meagan Flynn

April 28, 2021

Just like most young adults and teens in the world, online influencers can control their minds any day. Personally, I love the Kardashians, popular you-tubers  and instagram models. They display what society looks for in daily life like body shape, personality, hair style, makeup, and more. We look up to them which can be good and bad. 

According to the presentation in group 2, there are five main online influencer categories: social media, political, bloggers, celebrities, and writers/journalists. 

Social media contains follower count and content. Depending on the types of followers and number of followers, the social media influencers display content for sponsorship advertisements and content for what their followers want to see. It is mostly a full time job for them since they receive money for each post. 

Political influencers contain campaign talk and politician news. This connects to the news, but more behind the scenes. They can post on YouTube, blog posts, podcasts, etc. in order to send out personal opinions to listeners and bring them over to their side of political view.

Bloggers are topic writers and story covers. They write their own personal opinions and give reviews on new or old topics for their readers. Bloggers can also write about their family and give advice to readers. There are so many blogs out there about all different topics. They can be influential or just be against your views on parenthood or plain and simple like cooking or baking. 

Celebrity influencers contain public figures and personalized connection. Celebrity influencers are the most known online influencers. The Kardashians are one of the top celebrity influencers because they have been known for years, have cute kids, great bodies, and think they are the perfect picture of life for a woman. They use their celebrity status to sell their makeup, skincare, cars, clothing etc. in order to receive more money. Followers will fall for it because they love their style and want to be like them. This is one of the most dangerous type of online influencer I think because people will buy anything they have even if they're falsely advertising. 

Lastly, writers and journalists are accessibility and textual inspiration. They are similar to bloggers and political influencers; however they write more for online viewers who like to read news and things happening in the world. They are online these days and are not really printed in newspapers or magazines much anymore. 

There are pros and cons of online influencers:

The pros: diverse audiences, credible, trusted, indirectly psychologically supportive(give good laugh), can promote supportive action(one on one interaction- livestream)

The cons: purchase influential(advertisement for sponsors, buy more than u need), and encourage hostile action (story goes too far and encourage people to react and spiral, and other races)

Overall, online influencers can have good and bad impacts on society. They can help us feel good and have a good laugh, but also make us fall for things we don't need right now, but we need to have it because the fake celebrity that we love has it. People want to become online influencers, but don't succeed. This can take a bad tole on our mental. I believe online influencers should only be allowed online to advertise products they honestly love and use and help society instead of bringing us down and changing who we truly are.