Influencers: How Is Their Influence on Youngsters
A new trend of recent times and probably an upcoming profession is an ‘Influencer’. As the term suggests, an influencer is someone who tries to capture a target audience and gives detailed reviews, critique about products/services in the field that he/she specializes. These Social Media Influencers are usually young people who via social media, promote certain products, etc. They create a create a dedicated and loyal fan base for themselves. But what they don’t realize is that there are some issues with their “work”. Since they are paid to promote beauty products, they usually create a false image of ‘perfect body type’ or ‘absolute beauty’ which is ideal according to them or is ideal for the product's sale. Due to this projection, a lot of young people get carried away by this thought and those who don’t have that ‘ideal body’, often feel let down or depressed. Since social media has become an inseparable part of our lives, these influencers often tend to manipulate our perspective towards a lot of things without us realizing it.
People who are unable to differentiate their opinion from the world, often get blindsided by influencers. The way these influencers indulge people into their world is actually pretty deviating. They use clever techniques, glamour and give people fake goals about their beauty. They create attractive content, videos etc. and often give people what they want to hear. Movies and pop culture has already created a perception of the perfect woman or man, these influencers are only adding on to it. Posting perfect pictures, wearing heavy makeup that hides their flaws and not talking about the real problems that people face only creates a false bubble for their audience. By not addressing the actual issues in the society about self- like skin problems, unhealthy lifestyle and how to correct it, these people are only aggravating these problems. They should instead provide comfort to their viewers and together work up to a solution with their combined efforts. It is their moral responsibility to provide their followers with accurate information that does not distort someone's idea of "normal".
Body – shaming, bullying and making people feel bad about themselves is not their actual target but these problems have become rampant and thus, change should occur on both ends. The audience should have a broader and open mindset and should know how to differentiate media and reality from one another. On the other hand, influencers should move towards a more positive space and spread the message that health is above all other factors. Only then we can hope for a better and safe social space.
