Although the spectacle of influencers flaunting their affluence has long been a staple of social media, there are signs that audiences are growing tired of it. Experts say “influencer fatigue” is wearing on young people who crave authenticity as inflation rises and achieving a stable livelihood becomes increasingly difficult.
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According to data from a YPulse study shared with Yahoo News, 45% of people between the ages of 13 and 22 say influencers just don’t have the same power that they used to. About 53% said they were more likely to trust recommendations from regular people online whom they don’t know rather than creators with large followings.
Influencer marketing once offered an alternative to typical celebrity marketing. Celebrities appeal to us as salespeople because of the psychological phenomenon known as the halo effect. If someone is talented or beautiful, we assume they are highly qualified in other ways as well, which boosts sales. Influencers, who are powerful but not conventionally famous, offered a more relatable and accessible alternative. They’re far enough removed from celebrities that we can relate to them — until we can’t.
Influencer = self employed advertiser. Being a fan of an influencer is like being a fan of the insurance gecko.
I mean… he’s pretty cool?
Keep your gecko and Flo fanfic to yourself!
No, let the man cook. I wanna see where this goes.
If this starts getting too steamy, I must let you know that I am in Texas and over 18, in case anyone needs to verify my age for adult content.
Please upload your government issued ID to proceed.
This is governor Greg abbot stay where you are state police are in route to your location
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keep going, I’m almost there
I wouldn’t be surprised if a Rule 34 erotica exists starring the Geico Gecko and Flo.
Without checking or ever seeing it before, I am confident saying that it must exist.
I checked. It does.
Link?
(NSFW and NSFL)
Thank you for your service!
The geico gecko is to Flo as the gerbil is to Richard Gere.
Ha nice try
Not “Influencer” - “Huckster”
You leave Martin out of this.
He has a name!?
Well they should know, they’re a fan, obviously.
That’s a very fuckable looking gecko. Look at those scales and tell me he isn’t asking for it.
What do y’all call people that make video essays or make funny skits but make money if ads? I thought most of us understood the game and weren’t hating the players as much
Entertainers. That is a job. I had a dance teacher who taught dance, danced professionally, did singing telegram deliveries, dressed in costume for historical tours at old places, she was just an all around entertainer, that was her job.
Influencer is different, as I understand it, that is more like the content itself is advertising. Like a social media department at a company might hire them. I guess that is also a job, but most people don’t want to watch a ten or twenty minute ad.
Fair enough. Thanks for explaining. To me, it seems like influencer is used to put down anyone that makes money from yt, insta, tt, etc.
That’s almost all the content/format I watch. So it’s weird to think people just don’t care if they get paid because they depend on ad revenue.
Do you consider twitch streamers influencers or entertainers? I don’t watch many but I’d assume they’re worse in your mind when some have a gaming chair they’re promoting and/or they were directly sponsored by the game they’re playing.
Entertainers. An influencer is an evolution of the model, someone who exists to hang a branded product on and make rubes want to imitate them, not someone that provides entertainment.
Does everyone know that? Influencer seems to be used for anyone that makes money from youtube, insta, tiktok, etc.
Also, why y’all so hostile to basic questions? Does everyone here already think the same? No questions allowed? lol. Alright I’m done.
Creators? I just called them entertainers.
Video essayists. I watch them exclusively on YT and it is very important to me that they stick to their area of expertise and don’t include shady sponsorships. I think the video essayist is a very small portion of youtuber that make enough money to get by. Low quality stuff is far more effective at gaming the algorithm.
Plankton Dies and Farts
So the kids need a more realistic representation of adulthood?
My time as a homeowner who barely scrapes by is here.
We’ll go full circle back to the days of yore when home improvement HGTV wasn’t also bundled with an irl soap opera.
This old house.
New Yankee Workshop, bro!
Or go full Running Man with it, win a million dollars if you can tape and paint a living room with a homicidal American gladiator chasing you around with a chainsaw
You already lost them by saying home owner. That’s not realistic
No one ever said that any of the influencers were peddling realistic lifestyles.
Realistic
Homeowner
Choose one.
Well us old people were already tired of them when they first showed up. shakes cane
I distinctly remember a show called Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous, though I couldn’t tell you what celebs were featured. Then MTV had Cribs in the '90s. Influencers are basically just the modern version of those shows, aren’t they?
Good old Robin Leach. I remember watching that show as a kid and feeling vaguely creeped out by him.
Everyone keeps naming things that were always tiresome worship of excessive consumption and wealth. A good many of us were tired of them then, too.
The difference is now, they legally have to tell you they’re being paid to promote a product. And people just don’t care or understand the dynamic of why it might not actually be in their best interest to listen to a shill.
I thought that was the whole joke here.
I may very well have been too earnest in my response. :)
Influences back then were just called Celebrity Endorsements. Or did you think Robert Rockwell wasn’t getting paid?
Bold of you to assume we weren’t tired of those, too.
Some unsolicited advice
- Don’t trust anyone trying to make a living off of selling you anything, even something less tangible like a lifestyle.
- If you have extra income after living expenses, set a little aside for personal enjoyment and save/invest the rest. The future is uncertain.
- If you want to travel to far flung destinations and have the means to do so, consider skipping the resort experience. You’ll spend much less especially in developing countries and have a more authentic (relatively speaking), and rewarding experience.
Edit: Formatting.
In the 70s and 80s, if a fast talking guy with sunglasses and slicked back hair and in a checkered suit wanted to talk to you about the latest greatest thing … you knew they were selling something shitty.
Today we call those people influencers.
They were a trend back then, they’re a trend now and will die out when the next trend starts … probably brain implanted advertising inside your dreams or something like that.
It’s something that every generations grown up with …
Some babe’s talking real loud
Talking all about the new crowd
Try and tell me of an old dream
A new version of the old scene- Ragdoll … by Aerosmith … in 1987
The last point has to come with a huge caveat. Some of those developing countries are pretty unsafe outside of resorts without a guide or a local that knows where you should and shouldn’t go.
There’s certainly more dangers and risk and that’s important to be mindful of, but I don’t agree that it should be limited to having to have a local or a guide.
Some more unsolicited advice to that end.
- There are some places it’s not advisable to go. Perhaps due to conflict or civil unrest.
- There’s more risk if there’s a common cultural bias against you (nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual preferences, etc).
- Research if and what tourist targeted crimes are common ar your destination, as well as scams.
- Affluent areas tend to be safer. And still very affordable, comparatively.
- Don’t carry a lot of valuables. Enough cash for whatever your outing is. I also recommend keeping a travel specific debit card with no international fees and keeping a small balance on it and carry that around. A low limit credit card could also work.
- Let people back home know where you are and check in. If your country has a consulate there, keep that info handy.
- Risks for being a target are higher for women because the world is awful like that.
I know that’s seems like a lot, but it really boils down to being mindful, aware, and prepared.
Edit: split out conflicts and biases and removed a mansplainy bit.
That’s because the algorithm has grown recursive and shoves the same mainstream shit down everybody’s throat on repeat. Cake is cool but imagine never being allowed to eat anything other than cake.
Yeah but imagine admiring someone that needs a team of people to make it look like they made a cake.
Death it is then I guess.
No no no, you said cake first.
Death by cake?
We’re all out of cake.
Probably an old man yelling at cloud sentiment, but I hated them from the very beginning.
I’m definitely an old man. And i remember when YouTube influencers started being a thing.
To this day, I have no idea what the hell a Mr Beast is or any of these famous YouTubers are. And most of them either fade away or get propped up by some bad news.
I am not an old man, and I felt the same. I left Facebook in 2008, don’t have insta, TikTok, or tweet. I also left Reddit in 2014ish.
I only use HN (on and off to comment on articles), and recently started Lemmy. Will I stay? Idk. Some international acquaintances and friends use WhatsApp, but I’ve mainly quit it.
Influencer is a bad name, but I see them as bottom-up content creator, instead of the top-down conventional media. In this sense it’s more democratic approach and there is a wider choice and plurality of voices. But mainstream media is now enrolling them, for instance Reach Plc (who owns the Mirror and the Daily Express) fired a bunch of journalists and hired influencers. So you know, now you’re going to get the worst of two worlds.
If someone is talented or beautiful, we assume they are highly qualified in other ways as well
With apologies for sounding like a cranky old man 30 years too early: in my day, we didn’t call thinking that “the halo effect”. We called it being a gullible dumbass.
The “Halo Effect” has been a known psychological phenomenon since 1907 researched by uh…Wells and someone else who I can’t remember.
I don’t want to rain on your cranky old man parade, but unless you’re 100+ years old I don’t think it was ever just “being a gullible dumbass”, it’s very much a known societal bias that has been leveraged by the advertising industry. Don’t think you’re immune to it just because you think you’re “above it”.
I was trying to be humorous lol. I know that it’s a common bias, but just being aware of it and how it’s not based in reality is enough to not act on it.
I’m not 100+ years old (though it can feel like it some mornings), but people have been aware of the phenomenon and the insidious exploitation of it for a long while and
You just made me imagine GI Joe warning kids about logical fallacies rather than just the dangers of swimming in front of the local dam.
That souns like a solid JJ bit.
You’re welcome 😁
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We called it being a gullible dumbass.
The reality is that you’re almost certainly guilty of it. It’s human nature and to be so confident that everyone else is dumb and falls for it, and that it doesn’t bias your thoughts, is nothing but straight up arrogance.
I can almost guarantee that every person who upvoted your post, and you included, are probably more prone to it than average precisely because you think you are immune, so you don’t bother to consider checking your own bias.
Even our fairy tales and popular media often have ugly villains and beautiful (or “pure”) heroes.
What if I am genuinely a misanthrope who hates people?
Unless you hate everyone equally, which is almost certainly not the case, then it probably is still true.
Sure, we’re all guilty of it, but telling someone that their decision making process is adversely affected by the Halo Effect might not be quite so convincing as warning them that they’re being a gullible dumbass.
If you tell someone only gullible people fall for it…well, I’m not gullible so obviously I don’t fall for it. However if you tell someone we are all flawed humans that fall for it, they are more likely to be like “hmm, when does it affect my decision making process?”
Although I’m under no false assumption that either is very effective. People mostly don’t want to admit that they are ever less than completely rational and objective.
Being aware of psychological phenomena used in marketing doesn’t immunize you, I agree. But it definitely helps.You end up sounding paranoid to your friends, but you know those are real mechanisms that are used against you.
Oh soothsayer what does your wisdom say of those of us who saw them as sellouts? Or those of us that aren’t enamored by consumerism? Or both?
It would appear you are the one who has normalized these things in your mind as you have accepted them as inevitables.
Unequivocally, what you said.
It would appear you are the one who has normalized these things in your mind as you have accepted them as inevitables.
This is like saying that I’ve normalized car accidents because I tell you to wear your seatbelt, knowing full well they happen.
The people who think they are not prone to these types of biases are exactly like the dopes who don’t wear seatbelts. Either because they think they aren’t prone to accidents, or are simply just dumb.
Marketing doesn’t work as well as marketers would like everyone to believe. It works better on people who believe it works.
I’m not sure how one could possibly reason themselves into that position, so I guess I’ll just have to recognize that “you can’t reason a person out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.”
Your inability to determine how I have reasoned my way into something is about you not me.
Your dismissal of my ability to reason this and claim I didn’t reason myself into it, is a contradiction to the first half of your statement.
It would appear you are caught up by your own limitations. Your choice to project these limitations on others indicates you are incapable of recognizing others have not only different perspective but different life experiences.
Instead of just throwing out a lot of empty insults, you could have just demonstrated I am wrong by explaining your reasoning. By not doing so, you just confirmed that I am right. Well done. Thank you.
Branding is important, but brands need to be relatable to resonate with Gen Z.
Peak Capital Brain Rot.
I remember when these kind of people use to be called attention whores on the internet but I guess you can’t use that term when you’re shilling products
#BringBackAttentionWhores so we can go back to attention whores fatique
I think “whores” works well enough on its own, but some would argue whether it’s a gender-neutral term, so I am reluctant to use it.
Tramp is pretty gender neutral, but its double meaning as a destitute person kind of gets in the way of it having similar impact.
This just means the next wave of influencers are going to appear to be “regular people.” There’s no such thing as neutrality or authenticity on communications platforms that exist to sell advertising space.
im expecting ai generated mass customized ads made exactly for what triggers you, with the kinds of people you want to see/be in the places you want to be in/with the background audio as you like/using the lingo that works on you… it will be horribly wonderful and nobody can share the experiences. and when that fails to work anymore?
Well hopefully that whole house of cards will collapse.
I look forward to the 8-bit Guy’s makeup tutorials.
This thing has been happening for at least 15 years
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Oh please cow-fucking-god let this be true
What a beautiful string of words
Is it a cow god that fucks or is it a god that fucks cows?
I assumed they were referring to Zeus.
Ding ding ding
Edit: I don’t get it. Why does someone downvote me affirming someone’s assumption about what I said. Why are people like this?
I like a god fucking cow image best
I never trusted what any influencer was selling. An ad disguised as a reddit post was way more effective on me.
Sorry if I’m unable to muster up any sympathy.
Also the phrase ‘getting tired of fatigue’ tickles me.
did you read past the headline? it wasn’t about the influencers feeling fatigued
Right, but are we supposed to muster up sympathy for people who follow influencers getting fatigued from following influencers? Really not trying to be snarky just curious
You can get fatigue from things you choose
It’s just a technical term for bored
Your synapses are saturated
It’s a very useless observation that this also has a tipping point like every other trend in history
Right, I thought it was a comment about how young people brought it onto themselves… This whole concept where they enabled influencers and now it’s on them.
Why would anyone buy something because someone who openly admits to being paid to promote the thing told you to buy it?
Are you implying advertising doesn’t work? Because, regardless of whether you like it or not, advertising does work.
A person on a TV is doing the same thing as a person on YouTube or TikTok, and I bet you’ve bought something because it was advertised to you on TV. Does that make mean you’re just as susceptible to it as younger people? Yes.
Older people love to look down on younger people, but you were the model that showed this works and got us to this point.
I mean… when they show a product I find cool or interesting why wouldnt I buy it? I always like to mention Displate in this case. Its nothing special. Its not even useful. But the metal posters are goddamn cool. I didnt know something like this existed before and now I know and I occasionally buy one if i like one. So what was the issue with an influencer showing me this? I would have bought them even if i found it myself.
I think they mean more like “hey guys let me tell you about my new favorite shirt. Super great quality from China. Absolutely love it. They paid me to say that though”. Maybe don’t buy that shirt online based on that review alone.
That’s the right question to ask! It may have to do with the Halo effect as well. Even though the influencer not necessarily is a celebrity, they have build a certain level of trust with their followers I guess… In any case, I dont get it either, but I may fall out of the audience for any influencer I guess…
