I’m probably going to get a lot of crap for this, and in fairness, I probably should. Calling out influencers for their behavior is never an easy thing, especially when they have an army of fans that will defend their every action. But over the last few weeks, I have noticed a change in how people view influencers and their businesses. Buckle up, babes! It’s time to look at why we are over them.
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The fakeness
We have all seen it at some stage. The staged photos on Instagram of a lifestyle that they probably aren’t really living. But recently, it seems to have become more annoying than usual. Influencers are showing up to protests, standing there for a New York minute for a quick photo and then buggering off. I’ve even heard of influencers offering to help board up windows during looting, take a photo with them holding a hammer, post it with a snappy caption about helping, and then they bugger off without actually doing anything. This type of fakeness is the worst and I speak for a lot of people when I say I am done with it.
I get it. It’s much easier to sell yourself if you appear to be rich and powerful, but is it really necessary to lie so much? The whole “fake it til ya make it” thing is getting boring. Personally, as a blogger, I hate doing the staged photo thing. If I can’t get the shot on the first go, then I don’t get it. I refuse to stand over my dinner plate for longer than necessary to take a picture for the ‘Gram. The main reason that people fall in love with bloggers and faces on Instagram is the authentic person behind the posts. We need to get back to that. However, there is a flip side to this; the bloggers who are overdramatic about the negative side of life and blow the little things out of proportion for clicks and likes.
Adverts
How many times have you seen an influencer flog a product and wonder if it is an advert? Yeah, me too. I was on Instagram only a few days ago and looked through some different influencer’s posts. Nearly every post for a month was an #ad. Maybe I’m jealous but there seems to be a real issue with the number of ads that we are being exposed to and the paid positivity that lurks behind them. If it wasn’t for the “#ad” that is now required, I would never have known that I was looking at one.
I have no real issue with people promoting products, I do it myself, but when every post or picture is about selling something, it’s pretty annoying. We all gotta eat, and if you can get paid for doing what you love, go for it! I do sponsored posts and have automatic ads on this site, that’s why I have that big disclosure at the top. There comes a certain point when a line is crossed when it comes to promotions and getting paid. It’s a mucky, sticky place that smells of fakeness and poorly disguised as authenticity. One of the biggest problems is that brands are getting pushy when it comes to their promotions and expect glowing reviews for sub-par products that don’t work or aren’t worth the money. If you are a new blogger, it is very easy to get sucked into the joy of being asked to promote something AND get paid for it. How are they supposed to say “no” to this offer when that small paycheque will fill the freezer and top up the gas? They can’t, and if they do, you can be damn sure (9 times out of 10 I’d say) that a PR company is threatening them with legal action over it.
Parenting overexposed
When parenting blogs began, they were a safe haven for mums to vent about their kids and the dramas of family life. Now, we have a wide variety of parenting blogs, which is great in some respects. There is a blog for every possible type of parent and parenting style. In the last few years, the parenting blog arena has become highly over-saturated to the point that they are useless. Once upon a time, they were places of insight if you hit troubled waters. Now, they are online platforms for people to try and score freebies and pimp out their kids. I have a parenting section on this blog and I rarely put anything on because I have nothing of value to add. Just think about that for a minute, I’m a mother of four who has been parenting for nearly 18 years and I feel like I have nothing of value to add. That is how over-saturated the parenting arena is.
A lot of the original parenting blogs started years ago when the kids were just little bundles of squish. Those little bundles have grown up, some of them are teenagers; and they are pretty pissed at some of the stuff mummy-dearest has written about them. I’m pretty fortunate that I never joined in, I honestly think my daughter would disown me if I shared some of our “funny” parenting moments with the world. Those bloggers who did share (and continue to share) are facing some serious backlash from their kids and their readers who have realized how much has been shared over the years.
Being edgy
I’m going to put my hands up here and admit that I have done this. I dread to think of what might be dug up about me in the future when I’m running for president or become even slightly famous. Being stuck in an over-saturated cyberspace has made me follow certain trends and say stupid shit that I didn’t mean in an attempt to stand out. Holy shit, I am regretting it! I don’t think I’m guilty of anything really awful but I’m definitely the culprit of saying some pretty stupid and tone-deaf stuff. The thing is, I’m not that person. At least, I don’t think that I am that person anymore. And I would like to take this moment in time to beg for forgiveness and apologize to the depths of my soul for any harm that I have caused (or will cause) with any of my attempts to be edgy. I’m a twat and I should know better. I’m sorry.
For the last few years, I have shied away from doing the stuff that I should be doing to make my blog super-huge because I know that I have acted like an asshole in the past. And yes, I’m terrified that I have said something that was considered “edgy” five years ago, that would get me cancelled today. Do you blame me? People are losing their jobs over some of the jokes they have made in the past. James Gunn lost his position as director of Guardians of the Galaxy over a tasteless tweet he made ten years ago. Personally, I think we should forgive and forget anything stupid after a while. Just, draw a line under it and move on if the person has actually grown as a person. I can assure you, as a general rule, we are not horrible people, we have just been really stupid and thrown our morals out the window for a brief second in the hope that we can get the pages views needed to pay the rent for that month.
Manipulating everything
This is probably the biggest issue out of them all because it includes everything that I’ve already said and then some. These are the bloggers and influencers that constantly manipulate the world around them so the clicks keep coming and it doesn’t matter who it hurts. I have witnessed some incredibly toxic behavior from some people in an attempt to stay on top. From buying followers, lying about income streams, flogging highly questionable items, and putting out misinformation and fake news; the list goes on. But, the cherry on the top, is when it all comes crashing down around them and they play the victim. F**k that noise! It is these types of influencers who are the poison that ruins it for everybody else by destroying the trust between the content creators and the readers.
I suppose I should include: slagging other bloggers off in an attempt to discredit them and steal their audience. Am I doing that right now? It depends on how you look at it. To me, I believe that I am merely pointing out the issues that are festering underneath the glossy veneer of the influencer. To other bloggers, they may take it is an attack on them and what they do. That’s why I said at the beginning “I’m probably going to get a lot of crap for this” because I know how fragile some influencers and their egos are. It is not my intention to start a blog war with other people, I’ve seen first hand what that can do to people. I’ve seen the mental health of other bloggers plunge into a very dark place because someone decided that they didn’t deserve the small audience they had amassed through good promotion and heart-felt posts. And I never want to experience the horror of seeing someone breakdown and disappear off the grid again because some dickhead told them that they weren’t good enough for this world.
Not all influencers are bad. There are still plenty of interesting bloggers out there who you can vibe with. It’s not all doom and gloom. As for me, I’m going to keep doing what I do. I love what I do, and I hope that you enjoy the content that is here (whether it’s paid for or not). I don’t want to give up on influencers yet but if they are only in it for the money and the likes, they are going to get a rude awaking when everyone turns away from their fakeness.