As a frequent social media user, I enjoy following influencers. Typically, their lives are interesting; they introduce you to new products and provide some type of entertainment. But something has changed recently, and I’m struggling to follow them. It’s as if they’re becoming repetitive, and I can’t stand to look at their pages anymore. I’m sick of their influencer culture, and I am not buying what they’re selling. And here’s why.
They all promote the same things.
If I see one more ad for Dime Beauty or Diffy eyewear, I’m going to scream. Aren’t there any other companies that can recruit different celebs to promote their brands instead? Chances are, we already follow those people too. And seeing the same product or service advertised on every single account makes me less interested in it as a whole.
The giveaways are for self-promotion rather than giving stuff away.
Sure, they give away some swag, but it’s all for greed and gaining followers. Even the companies that recruit these women to join the “follow my friends and like this post” trend are earning publicity and improving sales. It seems like a weird pyramid scheme. And have you ever noticed that it’s the same type of pages that present these?
The color themes on their pages are all identical.
To be honest, it’s hard even to tell them apart these days. And while presets are extremely common for any avid social media user, all we see are the light and airy styles and golden hour shades. Everything looks so uniform on your timeline that you don’t realize you’re looking at different people’s posts anymore.
All of their new businesses follow the same pattern.
They might start as singers, actors, or reality TV personalities. Then they’ll start getting the odd sponsorship or two. As they keep growing their brand online, they all start doing the same projects. A cookbook deal. A children’s book or a memoir. Next, a clothing line or collaboration with a big retailer. Soon follow make-up lines and accessories, and eventually, they get their brand of wine. Look at all of your favorite stars and pay attention to just how many have the same business ventures going on.
Don’t get me wrong: I loved celebrities like Jessie James Decker and Jana Kramer (and still do love their careers). But it’s gotten to the point where I had to unfollow their Instagram accounts because I was so sick of seeing the same content looped on my feed. What’s more, we start seeing famous artists’ wives and girlfriends joining the influencer bandwagon. And the worst part is that they don’t contribute anything to the brand other than their famous name.
And don’t even get me started on the damn Bachelor nation people — they’re even worse.
I’d like to see some individuality when it comes to the influencer lifestyle. I’m so sick of the cookie-cutter, filtered bull crap that influecers keep trying to sell us. I’m not saying influencer culture should die. I do love following those accounts because I do learn a lot from them. I just want to see some damn individuality every once in a while. And that’s why we should let celebrities be celebrities and enjoy their careers with the odd side gig. Let’s leave influencing to actual influencers. They’re more relatable anyway.
Photo by Sonnie Hiles on Unsplash
Good article!
Hmmm, being an influencer on instagram is pretty tough. Maintaining popularity, traffic, and trying to please all your followers. I think we’re being too hard on them.