What do influencers expect? Certainly, they should not be foolish enough to think that they can sustain themselves throughout their lives by fooling people into believing they are something which they are not?
Who is an ‘influencer’? Have you thought about what the word means, and what it connotates? In terms of marketing, an influencer is a person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media.
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing involving endorsements and product placement from influencers, people and organizations who have a purported expert level of knowledge or social influence in their field.
Did you notice the words “expert level of knowledge”? Around the world, however, influencers are not judged based on their knowledge. Today, anyone with hundreds of thousands of followers can call themselves an ‘influencer.’ They might associate themselves with one particular sector or industry, or even comment on issues relating to all walks of life. But they are not experts on any given subject.
How Long Will this Scam Run?
Do we need to prove how influencers are experts at nothing? You know it all too well. We should now talk about how talented and gifted these people are. Sure, every person is unique.
Everyone needs to hone their skills to strive to be better than they were yesterday. Now for that to happen, there needs to be a realisation among people that they still have a lot to achieve. Among the influencer community, both in India and elsewhere, this realisation is absent.
As a result, what you have on YouTube is a sea of talentless and attention-seeking ‘influencers’ doling out videos that make no sense, are borderline insane and make your stomach turn upside down. The keyword here is ‘talentless’. Let’s take the example of Lilly Singh.
This personality, too many, would require no introduction. She was a YouTube sensation; has been the first woman of colour in the United States to host a late-night show; has been featured in Forbes’ top 100 personality list, among many other laurels.
Yet, it seems Lilly Singh has abandoned the practice of striving to be better. She hosts a mediocre talk show, cracks unfunny jokes and has antagonised her dedicated audience with unnecessary and avoidable comments.
Today, Lilly Singh is slipping into oblivion. Her career’s trajectory is anything but motivating, and she has nobody but herself to blame for it. But she can still salvage her career. Many other ‘influencers’, who have been making insane videos, cannot.
The Insanity of Influencers
The theme of our discussion is the absence of talent within the influencer community. They shot to fame owing to a jackpot video, and are now hoping to live their entire life in the hangover of their one-hit-wonder. With time, however, many such influencers – who banked on the audiences to keep their careers afloat until eternity, have become non-entities.
To compensate for their lack of talent and the ability to fetch jobs with ease, influencers often experiment with brazen and crazy themes. For example, some fake their pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages, while others engage in sexual acts with their siblings. Others kill random people, mourn them and at the end of their videos, say it was all a lie. Their pranks often deal with death, incest and other mindless themes.
Payal Zone is one such influencer-cum-YouTuber. This one lost a hand because of another influencer called Sourav Joshi. Is she handicapped? No. Did she get lots of views due to her clickbait content? Absolutely. Is her audience sick of her? Yes.
‘Bindass’ Kavya is another such specimen. To fetch views, she decided to wear ‘tights’ in her village, and vlog the reactions of every passer-by. She even titled her video, “When I wore Tight leggings In desi village| Logo ka Funny reaction. Muje gaon me pyar ho gaya.”
Some influencers even fake diseases and mental health issues to get views and make money. Others, like ‘Triggered Insaan’ beg for sympathy on their videos.
Influencers Nearing the End
Many of the influencers who we have mentioned have become subjects of ridicule for audiences. They are not taken seriously any longer. Yes, they were taken seriously once. But as their target audience – which when they started their careers was pretty young – now gradually ages, these influencers are having a hard time trying to make a living for themselves.
The Downfall of AIB
There’s another case-in-point. Remember All India Bakchod (AIB)? They were a sensation, right? And they produced good enough content. The likes of Tanmay Bhatt, Gursimran Khamba, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya grew incredible fans and followers. But then, it took one scandal to bring it all down. Allegations of #MeToo against some of AIB’s founders ruined the venture. Today, AIB has ceased to exist. They too were influencers in their own right. But all it took to destroy their wholesome venture was one trending campaign. That is how fragile social media ventures are, and that is how quick entire careers can be demolished. Unfortunately, influencers refuse to learn any lessons from the likes of AIB.
Read more: Instagram has become a shady black market for counterfeit goods, thank the influencers
Here’s the sad part. With the kind of content that these people have put out, for them to get normal jobs will be extremely difficult. To top it all, they have become addicted to quick money for which they have to put in little to no work. The topping to this cake is the fact that they are talentless and not hardworking.
No influencer can hope to make a permanent living out of insanity. They might be able to fool audiences, lure them into watching their crazy videos and make big cash momentarily, but their lives will ultimately come crashing down. And then, such people think social media will help sustain them forever. That, as we know, is wishful thinking.