Influencers are mostly self-created, by millennials, teens or younger.  Their small videos – usually very clever and/or funny, sometimes moving – are uploaded to and shared on one or more social media platforms; these generate ‘views’, ‘likes’ and possibly ‘subscribers’, each generating more potential revenue for the influencers.  The influencer then markets her/his/their popularity to producers of products for younger kids and adults; the influencer becomes whatever the social media word for ‘cool’ is, so ‘followers’ should buy the products used by the influencer.  In a way, this is not new: Liberace wanted us to drink Tang.  In Canada, Earl Cameron (CBC National News) wanted us to smoke du Maurier cigarettes.  But today’s influencers are not significant show pianists or dour newscasters; they are vibrant and popular young people, with no other qualifications than their popularity.

In a way, that’s a good thing.  Influencers allow those with no voice or platform to develop and market their own.  The influencer phenomenon allows those with no profile, no platform, even those marginalized, to tell a story and gain a voice.

Yet influencers can subtly enslave our youth.  More than a century ago, children used to be pressed into workhouses or factories at the age of six or earlier; today’s children of the Internet are pressed into being consumers of products hyped by influencers on social media.  Online retailers of cosmetics, footwear and clothing sell their products online, with online influencer endorsement.  Again, this is not entirely new.  Cartoons once promoted toothpaste and cereals: e.g. “Bucky, Bucky Beaver, with the New Ipana”; “Tony the Tiger: it’s Greeaaaate”.  In their day, they were influential to some degree, but your online or physical social status did not depend on consuming those consumer products; today it does in major part.  Of course there are many other factors in a person’s social status, online or otherwise: upbringing, economic status, community integration, etc.  But we have seen many instances where online social status has determined a person’s status in the physical world, many of those instances somewhat distressing.

And marketers are finding new innovative ways to keep young consumers consuming, while committing them to a potentially endless debt spiral.  With no credit check, you can buy a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes with bi-weekly payments in an unregulated credit market with no consumer protections.  Although it accounts for less than 10% of the credit market, the BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) movement is expanding, with most of the debt incurred by younger customers with little or no personal financial management experience.

Beyond the financial implications, we need to consider social media as a drug, one that is especially effective on young people who are developing their self image.  Social media offers intermittent rewards (likes, favourable comments) in a circle of online social validation.  Social media success – both online and for real – depends on clothing in the right products, makeup in the trendy colours, the latest dance moves.  Is this the objective which we wish our youth to pursue?  Not spiritual enrichment, or emotional growth, or technological achievement or artistic expression, not even personal wealth – no, just presenting themselves in the way that earns rewards from social media.  A triumph of narcissism.

Enough hand wringing.  Can we dinosaurs do anything to slow or modify the trend?  Probably not much, and those our age are unlikely to understand the culture fully enough to guide it.  But here are some thoughts, to open a discussion.

First guidance. Do not forbid: this battle is long lost (our own damn fault).  We ancients thought that social media would bring benefits, not realizing the potential for compulsive use and personal harm.

Second guidance.  Do what you can to show the joys and satisfaction in physical reality and personal interaction.  Show that it is possible to survive a day without electronic media.

Third guidance: Affirm the socio/cultural validity of younger people, in respectful interaction.  Do this both face-to-face and online.