Sell Sell Sell (yourself)

Over 1.5 million Americans seek to be content creators and, by extension, influencers. Globally, that number is 200 million. For those kinds of numbers, this is a career path that is the most lucrative, the most outstanding, and one that brings the most happiness to an individual pursuing it. However, in reality, most people who seek a career as a content creator or influencer will never reach beyond a certain level of success.

So, why do people want this so badly? Why do so many people see this and say, I want it. Well, for lack of a better term, they've been influenced.

Before the modern-day influencers and content creators existed, they were just people online recording themselves talking about hobbies. Or they were doing sketches. Hell, some were screaming nonsense at a camera. They shared it with the world for whatever reason they had at the time, and it resonated with people.

It brought these people followers—people who returned daily, weekly, or monthly to check out what the content creator was saying or doing. It opened a world of community, fostering an understanding among people who, for the most part, may have felt alone in their enjoyment of these things. But with that came the possibility of financial gain. A follower is someone giving their time to another. Time is precious and worth more than most know. One group that understands the value of time is the business class.

Major corporations and services recognized that millions of people gave their time freely to these individuals and wanted it. The more time someone is exposed to something, the more familiar they become with it and the more likely they are to recognize it. Don't believe me? Think about all the ads and songs stuck in your head because of how often you heard them. Jingles are the most infectious of viruses. (fuck you Empire today)

With a few ad reads and money transferred, the content creators became human adverts for whatever business could afford them. Afford? Yes. Content creators quickly realized that more followers equaled greater value. Value, in this case, was the time of millions.

Little by little, the people getting into content creation were doing it less out of love and enjoyment, and it became more about: What can I do to make money off of this? Because they saw how lucrative it was to build a following off a niche interest and sell yourself. Content creators have transitioned from passionate fans and artists to inorganic copies of themselves, seeking to maximize followers.

None of this would have been possible, though, if the people weren't experiencing the social pressure to make money and be rich. The biggest motivation for many people, as time has passed and financial strains have affected people worldwide, is money. So, of course, when it comes to our hobbies and our passions, it will reach in with its tendrils and take hold—slowly but surely—and it did.

And so, the people—although not explicitly influenced to do so, but implicitly influenced—shifted their mindset on content creation and it's goals. Was there ever a goal initially? It's hard to say. People originally did it for the love of the game. Now, there is a goal, and that goal is to attract followers who can generate revenue and serve as the models businesses want to use to sell their products.

After all, is said and done, I think the most significant damage inflicted by influencers on the world isn't their willingness to spout whatever the highest bidder has paid them to say, nor is it the loss of their own personal identity to facilitate being a voice for the highest bidder. I think the most significant damage influencers have done is causing people to view themselves not as authentic individuals but as a commodity—a way to be branded and sold—so that others will see you, admire you, and want to be like you. In that pursuit, people will buy whatever it is that makes you: the clothes, the cars, the lifestyle—all things that influencers peddle out to people as a living mannequin.

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