A Fine Line

[sidneydiongzon]

What do you think other people think of influencers traveling everywhere, reviewing new products, and all the other things that influencers do? Do you think vlogs have become more of a flex, or is it just purely documenting our lives? Curious to know your thoughts!

[SkyMakai]

I was JUST thinking about this.  Social media is an odd animal.  It seems to me like a lot of people follow others because they want to live the life the influencers are living.  But how long does that last before we realize that influencer is propped up, flown around the world, all to sell something?  At some point you have to realize it's a very niche role, very, very few people will get to live.  I mean, how many people end up at the Sony camps... like 40-50 tops?  That's out of millions.  

At some point, I think people realize that the influencer lifestyle is out of reach, and they stop paying attention to influencers... UNLESS those influencers have more to share than 'inspirational' lifestyle imagery.  They have to have educational content.  

But here's the issue... the two are in conflict.  If you're 'selling' products, you can't be objective.  If you're trying to educate people about products, skills, etc... you have to be objective.  But then where's the money, the influence, the popularity?

I know of only a couple people I follow who seem to be doing it right... Philip Bloom and Gerald Undone.

[LeeJH]

Unfortunately I think influencers have managed to give themselves a bad rap due to the behavior of quite a few people who an overinflated sense of self importance and either use their platform to garner attention for themselves instead of truly influencing others by being helpful and providing good information, i.e. honest gear reviews.