BEHIND THE SCREEN: THE ROLE OF AN INFLUENCER MARIA DIMENT
Over the past several years, social media has become less personal and more professional. The rise of influencers and other social media celebrities paved the way to a new form of income. Following YouTube, Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms of our decade.
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The social media side hustle craze set in when the money-making potential of YouTube was realized. At first, the platform was dominated by individuals who made videos for fun. Now, more and more YouTubers start channels for the purpose of fame and income. In a way, social media is becoming less personal and, therefore, less genuine. Profit has become a greater priority than sharing information and creating communities.
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Instagram is now no different than YouTube, and is filled with social media celebrities and influencers. Unfortunately, the Instagram influencer community has built a reputation of being more “fake” than other social media platforms.
From pretending to be on vacation, to pretending to be rich, to photoshopping the entire photo until nothing is real, falsifying photo's has never been easier. Instagram influencers’ ability to manipulate their reality with a photo and feeding off of likes and comments from those who compare themselves to what isn’t real has given them a questionable reputation. Influencers, especially those on Instagram, also often get hated on for promoting products such as appetite suppressants. Nonetheless, there are plenty of people who strive to be a good influence on their audience. Take the fashion and style influencer community for example.
