I grew up being warned about bad influences. Today's generations need to be warned about bad influencers.
All influencers are bad. There's your warning.
Let me explain. I'm one of those who learns best from experience. I learned first hand Mom was right on a lot of those warnings. But not all of those warnings. There were things and people she thought might be bad influences that I learned weren't at all.
There were also good influences Mom was right about. But not all of them. Some of the things that were supposed to be good influences weren't. These things I also learned first hand.
Here's the thing. Most of those supposedly bad and good influences weren't influences at all. Especially people. I never did a thing consequential because someone said I should or shouldn't. That may be because all the dire bad influences warnings of my youth caused me to resist influence period.
I'm not saying I'm not influenced. Everyone is. But most real influence, good or bad, has no intention. It's just there. Most, not all, of the bad influences weren't looking for me to soil. Most, not all, of the good influences weren't looking for me to soar. They were all there whether I was or not.
Their existence did not depend on me.
Which wheels me back to influencers. Do not mistake the influencer with the influential. A person or thing that is influential is recognized by accomplishment or effect in the real world. A person that is an influencer, like a lifestyle coordinator or content creator, is self appointed.
An influencer isn't. If an influencer is really an influencer, so is a used car salesman. Or a stock broker on commission. Or that lady on television haranguing me to buy life insurance.
The only place an influencer is real is as "occupation" on a tax form. The only way a person gets to be an influencer is by influencing you to click one of those links and buy one of the products or go on that vacation or just watch this video. If the influencer influences you to do anything that isn't click on that link or keep coming back and watching the videos, they have failed as an influencer.
An influencer is to salesmen as preachers are to ministers. It's basically the same thing.
Let's be clear. I'm not saying a salesman is a bad thing. There are things you need to buy and sometimes in those cases you're going to deal with a salesperson. You know they're selling and they know you know they're selling. That's an honest foundation.
There may be tactics and there may be subterfuge, but the used-car salesman isn't pretending to be the scion of a well-known family offering tips on cheap cars only rich people buy.
The vacuum cleaner salesman doesn't ring your doorbell and tell you they found this great product that made their life easier and they're just trying to tell as many people as possible because if more people used that vacuum cleaner, there would be world peace. And if you wanted one, they could text you a link to click.
That's what the influencer does. That's a bad influence. You've been warned.