I’ve alway questioned the power of influencers. If I’m being sincere, I’ve always seen them as sellouts. Why might I have thought they were sellouts? I think to be able to explain this I should lay out my reasoning. Often when the word influencers are seen on social media, the first names to be thrown around are the models like the Jenners, the Hadids and athletes like Cristian Ronaldo. If I’m not mistaken, the job of the influencers are to sell to the regular people, and sell as in show off clothes and lifestyles from brands/companies that pay them to post on social media how much they love their product. To me, it seems a little cheap to buy something because I was influenced by someone else who is getting paid. I say this, because If I’m correct, I believe that many of us wouldn’t mind endorsing something if we got compensated for it. If compensation is involved, how accurate and truthful can the endorsement by the influencer be? Now, I’m not saying that all influencers don’t stand by what they try to sell, but it does bring a little question if they’re getting paid to tell us this brand is the best or that we should buy into this experience.
But I digress, not all influencers fall into the category of sellouts, some actually see that perhaps in a world where people are influenced, there needs to be truth and integrity. Some see that although being an influencer can bring in huge bucks, there needs to be some realness that influences can provide as well. An influencer that I’ve recently learned is Essena O’neill. I believe that she is one of those who believes that there should be integrity in influencing. She has given up a lot when she quit Instagram and social media. Since then she has started a website where she still influences, but only things she truly believes in. She saw how much Instagram “Likes” were toxic and approached her site with the ability to not show or allow things such as “likes” and “views”. Perhaps not all influencers are in it for the money? What do you think?
The Social Network. It’s the movie I’ve been trying to see but have never had the time for. This Week and assignment required me to watch it so I finally got around to it. After watching it, I kind of hated myself for not watching it sooner. During a lot of the time Covid allowed, Ive seen a lot of movies but this definitely would have gotten me through some of this time. This movie is based on the story of Facebook. It’s really interesting because there’s actually a lot of drama and twists and turns. Mark Zuckerburg is portrayed as quite the Tech Rockstar and his Win at all cost attitude is definitely admirable as long as you’re not Eduardo or the Winklevoss at the end of the deals. To me the biggest mind blowing moment of the movie was seeing how Sean Parker, the guy from Napster played a part of this story. In some way Zuckerburg and Parker had this connection but in some ways I think I wouldn’t be wrong if I said that perhaps in some way, Sean Parker was a sort of Influencer for Zuckerberg? If you have not seen the movie, I recommend you do! And if you have, let me know what you think about Parker’s possible influence on Zuckerburg in terms of lifestyles or professional mindsets?
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Your post was a good read. to answer your question about Sean Parker being in the movie and how he was an influencer to Mark it is crazy. Sean who made Napster and was sued at the end wanted to keep creating a saw mark as an opportunity to do think the right way on his end. although he didn’t really get along with marks best friend, he made sure he had a say in what was going on so that he could make money and be involved in this revolutionary change in the way people used the internet.
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You made a valid point here about the influencers and I think it’s their job to make people feel like they are so in need of a particular thing or a fashion. People now a days are so obsessed with the social media celebrities that they wanted to copy them no matter what. I have seen many people chasing the bloggers and the social media superstars because the people are so much impressed with the lifestyles the bloggers pose to have. And I think that’s what makes the job of influencers easier.
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I think that Sean Parker definitely had an influence on Mark Zuckerberg! Mark kind of knew that he had something special, but it was Sean’s vision and his experiences and connections that influenced Mark to see the bigger picture. From talking him into moving out to California where he could continue to grow his business to the direction the business should go, Sean opened Mark’s eyes a bit. This obviously caused some trouble with Eduardo, but once Mark started expanding to other college campuses, he began to see how big this thing could really be. Though unfortunate, it was inevitable that he and Eduardo break ties. I guess Eduardo didn’t share the same vision. Ultimately, Mark had to find his own path but Sean helped him get there faster.
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Hello Steve, this was a good post. To answer your question I do feel Sean Parker had an influence on Mark Zuckerberg. They were both very intelligent individuals and Parker saw a bit of himself in Mark Zuckerberg. I also like the creativity of this post and can see why you have these points.
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Yes. I also agree with you that the influencers now a days are having so much influence on the lives of people that people are willing to do anything in order to get a glamorous life like the influencers. I also agree with you at the point that it feels a little cheap to buy something because you get influenced by someone and now you want to have that same thing as they have. That’s what the brands have come up with the new marketing strategy and now are earning millions by manipulating the large number of people without thinking about the consequences.
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