Hello,
I don't consider myself an "influencer", on the other side I am a "content creator". Since 2013 and I am passionate to write/blog & publish my writings to my community. Few years later, I have decided to invest more time & money creating this website/FB page. This year, I have decided to create an IG account. After this whole journey, I am not an "influencer" & my main aim in this article is to be clear on the affect on ourselves & our children.
Previously we had "content creators" that are living similar lives to ours & shares their honest opinions on products or services that they are using. Now, being an "influencer" is overrated. You might be requested to pay anywhere between 25,000 EGP & 70,000 EGP for an Instagram post or story that lasts for 24-hours only. And currently, all the Egyptians are either bloggers or influencers. They are fashion bloggers or health bloggers or sports bloggers or lifestyle bloggers or mom bloggers, and unfortunately this negatively affects us in two major drawback.
Here I will be focusing mainly on "Instagram", however this goes almost the same for all other platforms. For who doesn't know "Instagram" is a social media platform that focuses mainly on sharing photos & 1-minute videos. It has three ways wither posts or stories that lasts for 24-hours only (you have save them in highlights for ever) or live videos that lasts for 24-hours only. Statistics shows that on daily basis around 50 billion photos all over the world. Using "hashtags", you start creating visibility to your posts & your profile accordingly to build your fan base. There is no criteria or special talent needed to become an influencer, however it is not easy nowadays given the large number of influencers available now on the platform.
New generation need fame & money: Our kids aims to become "influencers" as they see it leads to easy fame & easy money. They are traveling all of the time without paying a penny. They are receiving fancy products for free & got invitations for fancy events all the time. Their life is "perfect", they are traveling to beautiful places or wearing good expensive clothes or spending luxurious nights with celebrities. We need to be clear with our children, that this is not "real". This is their "fake" life, this is not their "real" life. Fame & money are not the best things in life, being successful or lovable or kind or reliable is much better.
Depression: We are all comparing ourselves to what we do see, however what we are seeing is not "real" as well. Not everything they do recommend is really good, not all of those brands are suitable, not all of this clothes fits us. Don't believe everything you see!
Being narrow-minded: One of the several drawbacks of this "influencers" fad, is being shallow & narrow-minded only focusing on views, followers, likes, comments, and shares.
So, please next time you go to the Instagram or any other social media platform be aware of the consequences & ask yourself "do you believe that this is their real life?". And the next time you leave your children on social media platforms, clarify to them that those lives are photoshopped & not everything seen is real.
This is an advice to me as well, next time before feeling overwhelmed that their lives is much better than mine, I will ask myself if I really believe if this is their real life or a polished version after picking & choosing what to be published.