What is the power of influencers?
“I don’t have social networks” I usually say proudly after three years without Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
I saw the documentary a while ago The network dilemma, which explores how social networks and web search engines control their users’ data through algorithms to shape the way we see the world, think, and ultimately act. After that, I realized that a large part of my life was conditioned by the Kardashians and her collaborators, and I wanted to get out of there.
However, it is not so easy to escape the structures that use the influencers.
The influencers They are characters from the digital world with a great capacity to disseminate information and modulate values and behaviors. Your followers’ decisions to buy, watch, rate, or act are derived from their attitudes. We subscribe to the content they create and begin to build an intimate relationship, creating a virtual community with them.
We speak in feminine gender because the majority of those who monetize their content on social networks, influencers, they are women. And his followers too. In fact, a recent report shows that women and girls are the target audience of algorithms, and those who suffer disproportionate mental health harm from them.
We need to feel important
Community psychology can help us understand this phenomenon from the concept of mattering. He mattering It is an English term that we can translate as “import.” The concept of matter It confronts us with the need that human beings have to feel important. We feel this way because others take us into account and because they expect us to take them into account.
Every person needs to feel important in their personal life and in their social sphere. We want to have that effect in our workplace, in our personal relationships, in our communities. Lack of this sensation leads to feelings of isolation and disdain. Thus, the search for value can become a compulsive attitude that ends up making us want to be recognized and have influence beyond what is good for us.
The excess of mattering, of feeling important, fosters narcissistic and elitist attitudes, and an addictive search for recognition. If we transfer this logic to the reality of influencers, we could say that they need more courage to be more recognized. And those of us who make up the communities of followers compulsively need to follow their recommendations to avoid feeling isolated.
The content of the influencers It tends to project an idyllic life, which shows the use of beauty products, the practice of healthy living, a stylish motherhood and videos on how to prepare before leaving home. An example of this would be the #GRWM TikTok videos (get ready with me“make do with me”).
What is important for influencers It will end up being so for your community, because they feed each other. Their business model, according to which brands and companies depend on their prescriptions to market products, is another way of implementing capitalist systems and values within an environment that has alienated women for generations.
Recently, social networks and their influencers have been considered “commercial determinants of health.” This concept encompasses those activities born from the private sector – that is, those that prioritize economic gains – that can influence our well-being.
In 2021, Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee who became a whistleblower for the social network, testified before the United States Senate. During her testimony, she disclosed internal reports on the ethical use of data and the algorithms used on Facebook, highlighting how these affected, especially, adolescent girls. The latter are the most vulnerable because they are locked in a fatal loop: the networks where they receive support and value are the same ones that trap them with pressures and expectations that will never come true.
Political efforts urging transparency and regulation emerge slowly. Meanwhile, the influencers and their companies have achieved almost absolute control of the digital spheres.
In France, a law has been approved to regulate the services and products of influencers, ensuring they are transparent about their collaborations and paid products. Other member states of the European Union have commercial laws similar to this one and recently the European Commission has approved the Digital Markets Law and the Digital Services Law, with the aim of improving regulation of the digital space that is currently dominated by private companies.
Success in promoting these regulations in time can have a very important effect on collective well-being. Failure will condemn us to continue replicating social problems in the virtual world.
Redefining our digital relationships to achieve change
Although these regulations require transparency of the influencers, we need to delve deeper into their speech and the role they play. On the one hand, users must better understand algorithms from an early age, while networks must have ethical regulation that evaluates their relationships with brands and users. influencers and that is fundamentally based on the protection of user rights.
Social media allows us to stay connected, share information and tell our stories, giving us a feeling of belonging. This is very important for the well-being of the new generations. But they are also tools that can push us into the abyss of irrelevance and feel incapable of fulfilling idyllic ideas.
Our interactions with influencers must change. Social networks have to become a source of opportunities for women and girls, and influencers They can help us expand knowledge, develop critical thinking, and expand our multiple roles as women. In short, they can help us enter social and economic spheres as political actors, not simply as passive members.
Some examples can be found in young immigrants who use networks to promote the fight for human rights. Also in the girls of the gypsy ethnic group who use the networks to intentionally discuss the violation of rights. Or in the young women of Iran who use algorithms to break political barriers.
Instead of continuing to contribute to the narcissism and economic expansion of the influencers and the companies that support them, we urgently have to develop regulations and reference frameworks that make social networks a global space in which to promote democratic values and collective well-being.
Daniela E. Miranda, Postdoctoral Researcher, Sevilla University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.