Influencers living in false reality; Doing absurd things for views, likes, money

Meghan Kalck, SSC Editor/Studio Manager

     I think everyone is familiar with social media, whether you have it or not. Many of us also know the concept of an influencer, but how much of it is real? I’d guess pretty much none of it, and no one can tell me any different.

     Think about it: how many times have you seen a famous “influencer” on TikTok or Instagram film themselves or have someone film them helping the homeless or doing something for “the good of humanity?” All I have to give to these videos is a nice little eye roll, pretty much every time.

     Now, I am not saying there are not good people out there, because there definitely are, but seeing these people that aren’t even celebrities doing these things–let alone filming and uploading them–has me annoyed.

     It’s not just this either. There is this guy on TikTok that I see all the time (you might have seen him, or you might not have) who wastes an absurd amount of food. For example, one of his videos is him using a Starbucks cup and dumping an enormous amount of coffee, sugar, caramel, and ice to make fun of how some girls make their coffee. He also has a video basically doing the same thing, but with spaghetti noodles and tomato sauce.

     There are people out in the world who are hungry, very hungry, and these people decide to use their money to buy products and waste them. Not even in normal quantities, but in abnormally large ones.

     I believe in many conspiracy theories about these influencers, but let’s start with the difference between a celebrity and an influencer. I don’t want you who are reading this to think I’m talking about famous actors like Jennifer Aniston or Mila Kunis. I’m talking about these people who “got famous” on TikTok such as Charli D’Amelio or Addison Rae.

     Their lives are not real; they make videos of themselves dancing to random songs and get millions of likes and make a lot of money by just dancing. Meanwhile, other people are working 9-5’s and making barely enough to get by. 

     They also think that just because they are now famous on this app, they should now do other things like make music. I mean, have you heard the song that was written by Charli? Not to mention Addison Rae starring in the movie on Netflix He’s All That when the acting was not that good at all. 

     Who am I kidding? It was terrible.

     There are many other things that can be said about these influencers, but the main point is how this is not only tiring to us, but you should also feel some sort of remorse for them.

     No, I am not a fan of these kinds of people. However, I do tend to feel bad for them sometimes because the kind of life they are living can be very draining. People expect all this stuff out of them all at once to the point where they basically throw their old life away.

     Charli is my age, only one year older, and she went to high school just like every normal person does. But, ever since she peaked in 2020 on TikTok, she was expected to post all these videos because people wanted to see them. She also got bullied a lot online. She made a lot of money, and she and her family moved to a bigger house and now have their own reality show. Personally, I think her parents are forcing her to collaborate with all these brands just so she can stay famous and well-known so they can pay for their now very large and expensive house, and also buy many expensive things for themselves. 

     This is just one example of how this kind of life changed these people’s perspectives on the world and how it works.

    Part of me wonders if it’s really all worth it to these people. Yeah, money is cool and all (sometimes I wish I was rich), but money changes people a lot, and that is something I personally would hate to experience, so I do not know how these people do it. 

     Influencers are one of the world’s greatest conspiracy theories to me. I want to know how much of it is real. But, I am a firm believer that these people were created just to cheat the system and have their life handed to them on a silver platter, and I am not here for it.