tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/instagram-influencers-58706/articlesInstagram influencers – The Conversation2023-07-09T12:02:12Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2088282023-07-09T12:02:12Z2023-07-09T12:02:12ZThe deinfluencing trend reflects a growing desire for authenticity online<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535918/original/file-20230705-15-90dso1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C48%2C6487%2C4282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deinfluencing involves influencers discouraging their followers from buying overpriced or otherwise ineffective products.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A new social media trend has recently emerged in response to the materialistic nature of influencer culture: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/feb/22/the-sudden-dawn-of-the-deinfluencer-can-online-superstars-stop-us-shopping">deinfluencing</a>. This trend involves influencers discouraging their followers from buying overpriced or ineffective products.</p>
<p>Influencing is a highly profitable form of marketing, reaching a market value of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1092819/global-influencer-market-size/">US$16.4 billion in 2022</a>. But by its nature, influencing can also be disingenuous. Influencers often end up promoting products they don’t believe in, or that don’t align with their follower base.</p>
<p>The deinfluencing trend is shaking up this model. The trend has quickly gained momentum, with nearly <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/deinfluencing?lang=en">730 million views on TikTok</a> as of July 7. There are a few reasons for its growing popularity, including a desire for authenticity, social media burnout and a shift in values.</p>
<h2>Desire for authenticity</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/consumer-psychology/202305/consumers-want-brands-to-be-authentic">growing demand for authentic and unfiltered content</a> online has given rise to both <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/how-to-take-advantage-of-the-unexpected-rise-of/442900">micro-influencers</a> and the deinfluencing trend. </p>
<p>Micro-influencers typically have a follower base ranging between 10,000 to 100,000. They build a tight-knit community with their followers and can have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.03.003">significant impact on their purchase decisions</a>. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rLcZh5-JK3I?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An NBC News report about the growing deinfluencing trend on TikTok.</span></figcaption>
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<p>In response to the desire for authenticity, deinfluencers prioritize genuine content and real engagement over the meticulously curated content and commercial partnerships that are common in <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-an-influencer/">traditional influencer culture</a>.</p>
<h2>Social media burnout</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2016.1208064">Social media burnout</a> refers to the emotional exhaustion caused by the constant pressure to maintain an idealized image on digital platforms. This issue affects both influencers and their followers. </p>
<p>The journey from being an ordinary consumer to becoming a brand influencer involves a significant shift in mindset, since influencers must maintain brand consistency to ensure a positive image. This pressure often <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/style/creator-burnout-social-media.html">leads to burnout over time</a>.</p>
<p>On the flip side, a large number of consumers are exposed to idealized lifestyles through influencers. This often compels individuals to attempt to imitate or adapt to these lifestyles, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100117">leading to burnout and potential mental health challenges</a> in the long run.</p>
<p>Deinfluencing addresses these challenges for both consumers and influencers by encouraging influencers to step away from the constant pressure of maintaining a perfect image and supporting better mental health.</p>
<p>For consumers, deinfluencing offers a more balanced and realistic perspective on life, resulting in individuals feeling less pressured to live up to unrealistic standards. </p>
<h2>Shift in values</h2>
<p>The evolution of societal values towards transparency, honesty and genuine connection aligns with a greater consciousness about sustainability. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-02-2022-0029">In a recent paper</a>, my colleagues and I examined over 440,000 YouTube comments from 2011 to 2021 and found an increase in conversations about sustainable fashion.</p>
<p>The deinfluencing movement is positioned at this intersection, contrasting sharply with the traditional influencer culture that often fuels rampant consumerism and wasteful habits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shoulders-down view of people crossing the street holding shopping bags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535921/original/file-20230705-17540-w4i5j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Social media influencers have significant sway over consumers and the shopping choices they make.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)</span></span>
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<p>Deinfluencers are in a unique position to foster a more sustainable approach to consumption. Rather than promoting the latest products or trends, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/11/us/deinfluencing-tiktok-trend-explained-cec/index.html">they highlight mindful consumption, sustainability</a> and the importance of making thoughtful choices. </p>
<p>This approach is a key response to the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10949968231156104">overconsumption often seen in traditional influencer culture</a>, which can lead to unnecessary waste and contribute to environmental degradation over time.</p>
<h2>Is it only positive?</h2>
<p>While the deinfluencing trend may be positive, there are some side-effects that need to be examined carefully. </p>
<p>One concern is the emergence of pseudo-authenticity, where the pursuit of authenticity is exploited for commercial gain. Influencers may end up projecting an image of authenticity while still actually being motivated by financial interests.</p>
<p>Another challenge is the risk of misinformation, particularly in relation to sustainability. While many deinfluencers may advocate for sustainable practices, they may lack the expertise to provide accurate information. This could lead to them <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/shein-influencer-trip-marketing-trend-1.6890922">misleading followers who rely on them</a> for information and guidance.</p>
<p>Additionally, the emphasis on authenticity and openness could lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941221122861">oversharing</a>. Deinfluencers might feel compelled to share intimate details of their private lives in the pursuit of being real with their audience. However, this can cross boundaries of privacy, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/22526811/oversharing-social-media-protect-personal-harassment">potentially causing more harm than good</a>.</p>
<p>For the sake of mental health, it’s important for deinfluencers to strike a balance between being relatable and maintaining their own personal boundaries.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for businesses?</h2>
<p>The deinfluencing trend introduces new dynamics for businesses in the digital landscape. While it may <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/deinfluencing-tiktok-trend-1.6755278">disrupt traditional marketing approaches</a> that rely on polished images and celebrity endorsements, it also offers an opportunity to connect with customers on a more genuine level.</p>
<p>By embracing deinfluencing practices, businesses can tap into the authentic relationships influencers build with their followers, potentially boosting trust and engagement.</p>
<p>The emphasis on sustainability among deinfluencers also aligns with the growing <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/consumers-care-about-sustainability-and-back-it-up-with-their-wallets">consumer demand for responsible practices</a>, providing businesses with an avenue to showcase their commitment to these values. </p>
<p>However, businesses must ensure their collaborations genuinely reflect their values to avoid the trap of pseudo-authenticity, which could harm their reputation and result in accusations of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/what-is-greenwashing-how-to-spot">greenwashing</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Omar H. Fares does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Deinfluencers prioritize genuine content and real engagement over the meticulously curated content and commercial partnerships that are common in traditional influencer culture.Omar H. Fares, Lecturer in the Ted Rogers School of Retail Management, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1590552021-05-20T19:54:28Z2021-05-20T19:54:28ZFriday essay: why there’s still something about Byron, beyond Insta influencers and beige linen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401778/original/file-20210520-23-175ewz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C24%2C4065%2C2726&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1458594656687-226e7d3300e3?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2252&q=80">Unsplash/Delphine Ducaruge</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When town planners mapped Byron Bay in 1884 they mistakenly believed Captain James Cook had named Cape Byron <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron">after the English poet</a> Lord Byron — when in fact it was named after the poet’s grandfather, a navy admiral. </p>
<p>From that mistaken belief, say <a href="http://byronbayhistoricalsociety.org.au/development-of-byron-bay/early-settlement/">local historians</a>, many of Byron’s streets were given the names of famous English poets or literary figures such as Wordsworth, Browning, Milton, Marvel, Jonson, Kingsley, Carlyle Tennyson and Keats. </p>
<p>“It is more than a little ironic,” they note, “that the streets of Byron Bay, a very industrial seaport town until the 1970’s, were named after men who were far from working class”.</p>
<p>Now, with television turning its lens on Byron Bay, we can add another layer of irony to this story. A town mistakenly thought to be named after a rich European poet and his contemporaries is today synonymous with a new breed of image-conscious wordsmiths — the influencers.</p>
<p>From streets in the 19th century to cyberspace in the 21st, the point is not whether the connection to Byron (the man or the town) is true, but that the conjuring is enough to fire imaginations — for the purposes of colonisation then and chasing profit today. </p>
<p>Because hype doesn’t stand in for the real, there is still something very special about Byron Bay. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="lighthouse on coast" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401787/original/file-20210520-17-kshphw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cape Byron lighthouse at sunset.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1581132885085-02e91cf6e0cc?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2250&q=80">Unsplash/Shubham Sharma</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>By the baes</h2>
<p>When streaming giant Netflix issued a press release in early April announcing production was imminent on the doco-soap Byron Baes, negative reaction from the local community was fast and fierce. </p>
<p>Surfers <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9489369/Celebrities-join-locals-protest-stop-Netflixs-Byron-Baes-reality-show.html">paddled out to protest</a> and locals brandished handmade signs reading: “Give Netflix the Flick” and “Byron’s Soul is not for Sale”. Meanwhile famous neo-locals, actor Chris Hemsworth and wife Elsa Pataky, threw a “<a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/celebrity-photos/chris-hemsworth-and-elsa-pataky-throw-allwhite-party-with-a-host-of-alisters/news-story/01c0dbfc364de67886b39f49f85baf2b">white party</a>” with A-list friends including Matt Damon (visiting from Hollywood) and some musos (visiting from Melbourne). </p>
<p>Netflix’s Byron Baes press release promised a bevy of “hot instagrammers living their best lives, being their best selves, creating the best drama content #no filter guaranteed”. </p>
<p>The tone was vacuous: “This is our love letter to Byron Bay, this is not just Chris and Zac’s backyard, it’s the playground of more celebrity-adjacent-adjacent influencers, than you can poke a selfie-stick at”. </p>
<p>In any other town this misreading of place and lack of community consultation might have gone unnoticed. But not in Byron. This is a community that <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/not-in-byrons-backyard-20030816-gdh9aw.html">ran Club Med out of town</a> in the early 1990s (though a luxury “place sensitive” resort has since <a href="https://www.traveller.com.au/checkin-hot-elementary-my-dear-byron-gmwcmw">opened on the proposed site,</a>). This is a town that has consistently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/byron-bay-turns-its-nose-up-at-kfc-20121205-2avud.html">fought off McDonalds, KFC</a> and other mega-franchises. The building limit is two storeys in the township and the local council has <a href="https://greensoncouncil.org.au/byron/">three Greens representatives</a>, including the mayor. </p>
<p>In 1994 the Arakwal people, one of the tribes of the Bundjalung nation, lodged the first of three native title claims over the region. On 28th December 2000 the Arakwal signed the <a href="https://arakwal.com.au/native-title-indigenous-land-use-agreements/">first Indigenous Land Use Agreement</a> in the country, which stands internationally as a benchmark for Indigenous communities negotiating Native Title. </p>
<p>But the Bay is still bruised from a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/07/the-coast-of-utopia-surfer-moms-instagram-influencers">2019 Vanity Fair</a> article on local “murfers” (mum surfers) and Instagram stars. Many readers took pleasure in the way it skewered a group of privileged, linen-clad influencers with revelations about sponsorship and duplicity. Others felt the piece was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/live-and-let-live-on-the-coast-of-utopia-aka-byron-bay-20190709-p525ms.html">a nasty smear job</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="clothing boutique." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401785/original/file-20210520-19-1vbw50u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Boho chic and beige linen at a local store.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1581863681588-0e332753a3cc?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1350&q=80">Unsplash/Noemi Macavei Katocz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>So, Byron Baes was always going to be divisive. At the recent protests, filmmaker Tess Hall summed up local sentiment saying, “Trash TV equals trash town”. Many have suggested this ruckus was all part of Netflix’s plan — that the continuing coverage will only serve to provide free publicity. Despite a 9500-strong petition and an emergency motion from council, filming has <a href="https://www.echo.net.au/2021/05/filming-of-byron-baes-begins-with-no-indigenous-consultation/#:%7E:text=Filming%20of%20the%20Netflix%20series,Indigenous%20groups%20or%20Byron%20Council.">reportedly commenced</a>. </p>
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<h2>Mind the gap</h2>
<p>What’s happening in Byron Bay highlights the gap between constructed content and reality, between what happens on “the Gram” and people’s actual lives. </p>
<p>I want to see if recent events have dented the spirit of the Byron I know — whether, despite its battles, it still retains its restorative powers. I spend my first night with a friend in a treehouse-style whiskey bar, trying to reactivate my Insta account after a break of several years. We request and wait — my university firewall not playing ball. My friend, much younger than me, keeps refreshing my email as if this delay is an affront to humanity. </p>
<p>It turns out our national broadcaster has already beaten Netflix to the punch and interviewed Byron Bay influencers for an upcoming Compass program <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/watch/compass/instagram-utopia/13311220">Byron Bay: Australia’s Instagram Utopia</a>. I chat with a couple of those featured during my visit.</p>
<p>When I tell Sarah Royall, adventurer and travel influencer with an eco-agenda that I’m not on Insta she looks at me like I’m an alien. But her bright-eyed positivity about the network potential of Instagram, what she categorises as a “new and emerging industry” is convincing. When travel restrictions ease, she plans to hold a sustainability retreat in French Polynesia involving coral reef and shark experts, scientists and marine biologists from around the world, all connected by social media. </p>
<p>Like the other women featured on the ABC program, Sarah deviates from the blatant objectification and product placement usually rife on Instagram. There’s Angel Phoenix, a self-described radical astrologist who lives in a caravan. Jade Couldwell and Sophie Pearce, two friends and mummy influencers, who pose in various relaxed tree and sand tableaux with their golden-haired husbands and children. Emica Penklis, an ex-model who now runs a successful organic chocolate company and Bunjalung woman Ella Noah Bancroft, a queer activist. Still, this is Instagram. They are all beautiful.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="gorgeous young woman with hands in hair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401779/original/file-20210520-17-1str9zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Ella Noah Bancroft harnesses her beauty for influence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC TV</span></span>
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<hr>
<h2>Colour and movement</h2>
<p>Because Instagram demands beauty in whatever form it comes, beauty is the unspoken currency. Ella Noah Bancroft is uncomfortable about this aspect, smiling wryly when she says her words are linked to, “an often pretty egotistical photo … but it’s not about the photo for me, it’s about the caption”. </p>
<p>She recognises the power the platform provides her, but earns more money from her various roles in the community than she does from her social media presence — though the two are vitally interconnected. Instagram appears to operate in this way for many — a nexus around which other opportunities, entrepreneurial ventures and side hustles occur. People becoming brands with faces and voices. What’s contained in the messaging is key. </p>
<p>The women talk about the importance of cultivating “relationships” with their “communities”, steering talk away from the machinations of the monetary value of influence. Progressive narratives underpin or offset the images and commercialism — mental health, environmentalism, feminism, LGBTQI rights. While none of this could be read as altruistic, surely the ethical lean is positive. </p>
<p>That said, Penklis’ view is pragmatic. Her product is organic with a high price point. So her social media feed is designed to attract a particular clientele, rather than highlight an agenda. She’s also refreshingly honest and tapped into the essential fact of Instagram influence: envy sells. </p>
<p>While Byron Bay might offer the promise of this enviable work life balance — pristine surf beaches, spa and wellness retreats, national parks — the business of influence can be hard work and switching off isn’t easy. </p>
<p>Royall has suffered from burnout and Bancroft is conscious about cultivating time away from technology. In the Compass program we see her working with other women in a communal garden. She tells me she often visits her mother on their nearby ancestral lands but does not document it.</p>
<p>“How many people can say that — that they can sit and talk with their mother for hours without looking at their phone?”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="houses by the coast" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401786/original/file-20210520-21-yq2p0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some say Byron is the site of a spiritual energy vortex. Others see development opportunities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1605269515950-2b26e3201305?ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2250&q=80">Unsplash/Patrick Mcgregor</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Being there</h2>
<p>Byron Bay is a strange attractor — the Insta-driven celebrity wave, just the latest to roll in after the colonialists, whalers, hippies and the wealthy. </p>
<p>Sure, some young wannabes are lining up at sunset at the redeveloped Beach Hotel hoping to run into a Hemsworth brother and real estate is skyrocketing. But the roll call of visitors and locals remains eclectic. There are still old rockers holding up the bar at The Rails, glitter fairies busking on stilts in the main street while the well-heeled stroll by in their boat shoes. </p>
<p>Some spiritualists believe Byron and the surrounding area is a portal or <a href="https://crystalsbyronbay.com/2020/09/11/energy-infusion-byron-bay-energy-heart-of-the-bay-crystals/">energy vortex</a>. The Arakwal believe it is a healing place where Indigenous women would birth in the ti-tree lakes. There’s definitely something in the water. Wave after wave, the same “cheer up, slow down, chill out” vibe washes over everyone. </p>
<p>On my final morning in Byron I head up to the Pass where another paddle out protest is scheduled — not against Byron Baes but <a href="https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2021/05/08/hundreds-attend-pep-11-protest-at-byron-bay/">PEP11</a>, a major oil and gas venture threatening the precious marine ecosystem on the east coast. The bright blue day and the gathered crowd are impressive.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="surfers with signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/401781/original/file-20210520-15-ihfwrk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Locals at the paddle out protest, this time against an offshore gas venture rather than a reality television series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I don’t see any influencers or famous Hollywood actors, or even many people on their phones. Everyone radiates casual ease and community, standing about, or pooled under the eucalypts, boards strewn all over the place. Jaded radio hosts like Mick Molloy may have <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/triple-m-national-drive/why-cant-mick-be-a-byron-bay-influencer">paid out on the Byron community</a> for going surfing as a form of protest (he suggests burning a wicker Hemsworth effigy instead). But when you’re here the gesture is powerful and symbiotic with a lifestyle tuned in to consciousness raising. </p>
<p>Musician Billy Otto, a guy Byron Baes’s producers reportedly <a href="https://www.victorharbortimes.com.au/story/7249689/the-boy-who-gave-netflix-and-byron-baes-the-flick/?cs=2808">tried to recruit</a> for the reality show, takes to the microphone. After his song and the speeches, the crowd flows down to the beach, surf warriors paddling out a model of a giant gas rig which they dismantle and bring back to shore. </p>
<p>Beyond them, further out to sea, my eye is drawn to Nguthungulli (Julian Rocks) where the Arakwal people say, their grandfather creator is resting. As the surfers form a circle, I’d wager it’s not the influencers, but Nguthungulli who draws so many people to Byron Bay. The most easterly point of the country. A place originally named <a href="https://arakwal.com.au/cavanbah/">Cavanbah</a>, the “meeting place”. </p>
<p>On the way home my phone dies. I guess refreshing my Instagram self is going to have to wait. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oxVl8z77do8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">‘He rests in the rocks out there today.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/one-of-australias-most-famous-beaches-is-disappearing-and-storms-arent-to-blame-so-whats-the-problem-150179">One of Australia's most famous beaches is disappearing, and storms aren't to blame. So what's the problem?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Breen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How does the spirit of Byron Byron endure wave after wave of seekers and lately, Instagram influencers? Sally Breen took a road trip and found a something deeper in the beachy township.Sally Breen, Senior Lecturer in Writing and Publishing, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1541742021-02-02T19:04:03Z2021-02-02T19:04:03ZSocial influencers: new advertising code addresses hyper-sexualisation, but not where it’s needed most<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381846/original/file-20210202-15-jphf0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3270&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You may have heard of Vanessa Sierra, the Instagram model and reality TV contestant who adeptly used her time quarantining with boyfriend Australian tennis player Bernard Tomic to build her public profile. </p>
<p>Sierra is just one of the hundreds of thousands of “content creators” – most commonly young women – monetising content produced on social media platforms. She has been using these platforms to promote “subscription-only” content. Most “social influencers”, however, have a more traditional business model, using their position to promote brands.</p>
<p>Among Australia’s influencer megastars are fitness influencer Tammy Hembrow (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/tammyhembrow/">11.9 million Instagram followers</a>), who can reportedly charge as much as A$55,000 for a single post, and Kayla Itsines (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/kayla_itsines/?hl=en">12.7 million Instagram followers</a>), whose workout app and deals with brands such as Apple and Adidas placed her 27th on the Australian Financial Review’s 2020 <a href="https://www.afr.com/young-rich/the-top-10-young-rich-listers-are-mostly-techies-20201125-p56hx9">Young Rich List</a> (estimated worth: A$209 million).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Tammy Hembrow and Kayla Itsines, two of Australia's most successful social influencers. Both have more than 10 million Instagram followers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381617/original/file-20210201-21-gihi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tammy Hembrow and Kayla Itsines, two of Australia’s most successful social influencers. Both have more than 10 million Instagram followers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One report estimates there are more than <a href="https://learn.aspireiq.com/state-of-industry-report-2019">830,000 influencers</a> on Instagram alone.
It’s the wild west of marketing. Surreptitious and dubious practices have flourished. So too has the exploitation of overt sexual representation.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://aana.com.au/2020/09/23/aana-launches-new-code-of-ethics/">new code of ethics</a> for Australian advertisers, which came into effect on February 1, addresses one of these problems – lack of transparency in disclosing financial deals. It does a less adequate job with the other. </p>
<p>It has much improved on guidelines for gender representations in traditional advertising. It acknowledges, for the first time, advertisers’ responsibility to avoid harm to consumers and society. But it leaves a big loophole for commercialising sexualised imagery through social influencers.</p>
<h2>What is the code of ethics</h2>
<p>The Australian Association of National Advertisers’ <a href="https://aana.com.au/self-regulation/codes-guidelines/code-of-ethics/">code of ethics</a> is a central part of the self-regulatory model that governs advertising standards in Australia. </p>
<p>It sets <a href="https://aana.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AANA_Code_of_Ethics_PracticeNote_Effective_February_2021.pdf">guidelines for</a> “all advertising or marketing communication under the reasonable control of the advertiser”. It is used to adjudicate complaints about advertising (by AdStandards, formerly known as the Advertising Standards Bureau).</p>
<p>The new code makes a number of welcome improvements, replacing a code much criticised for its laxity in allowing adverts that reinforced gender stereotypes and exploited sexualised imagery for commercial gain. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexualised-and-stereotyped-why-australian-advertising-is-stuck-in-a-sexist-past-125704">Sexualised and stereotyped: why Australian advertising is stuck in a sexist past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Addressing gender stereotypes</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pine O Cleen's 'Put time back in your day' advertisement." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=799&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381578/original/file-20210201-13-19tclgd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pine O Cleen’s ‘Put time back in your day’ advert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.amysibraa.com/Pine-O-Cleen-Wipes">www.amysibraa.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One key change is prohibiting harmful gender stereotypes suggesting “skills, interests, roles or characteristics” uniquely associated with women or men.</p>
<p>Such stereotyping in advertising has <a href="https://theconversation.com/keeping-mum-in-the-kitchen-representations-of-mothers-in-ads-havent-changed-in-six-decades-126877">equated women with domesticity</a> and men in caring roles as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-fathers-day-give-us-men-who-arent-shown-as-fools-and-clowns-31170">dumb dads</a>”. </p>
<p>Now messages such as the “<a href="https://payload.cargocollective.com/1/10/327257/8458996/Screen-Shot-2014-08-27-at-4.26.52-pm.png">Put time back in your day</a>” advert for leading cleaning brand Pine O Cleen (owned by British multinational Reckitt Benckiser) will be contrary to the code, because they allude to alleviating the domestic load only of women. </p>
<h2>Overtly sexual imagery</h2>
<p>Another important change is prohibiting the use of “overtly sexual” images in outdoor advertising or shopfront windows, and in any other advertising medium when “not relevant to the product or service being advertised”.</p>
<p>Accompanying the new code is a <a href="https://aana.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AANA_Guide_to_overtly_sexual_imagery_in_Advertising_February_2021.pdf">guide</a> specifying what may be considered overtly sexual, including suggestive undressing or depictions in sheer clothing or lingerie that expose private body parts. </p>
<p>This mean brands such as automotive repair company Ultra Tune, long subject to public complaints, can no longer use overtly sexualised representations of women to advertise their services. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ultra Tune's 'Get into rubber' campaign was the second most complained about ad in 2016." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381590/original/file-20210201-15-120nbdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ultra Tune’s ‘Get into rubber’ campaign was the second most complained about ad in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.collectiveshout.org/ultra_tune_website_advertising">Ultra Tune/Collective Shout</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>Research has consistently found exposure to such images are directly associated with a range of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2016.1142496?journalCode=hjsr20&">negative consequences</a>, including higher levels of body dissatisfaction, greater support of sexist beliefs and greater tolerance of sexual violence toward women.</p>
<h2>But what about influencer culture?</h2>
<p>The new code’s approach to sexist stereotypes better reflects contemporary society and signals a move away from a “sex sells” mentality in advertising.</p>
<p>What it doesn’t really address, however, is the rise of influencer culture, where a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-highly-sexualised-imagery-is-shaping-influence-on-instagram-and-harassment-is-rife-113030">highly sexualised aesthetic</a> that borrows from pornographic imagery is the norm. </p>
<p>Across influencer culture there’s a rigid standard of idealised femininity known as the “Instagram face” – doe eyes, arched brows, high cheekbones, smooth skin and pouty lips. It is a look that sets unrealistic beauty standards for girls and women, manufactured through cosmetic enhancements and photo editing applications. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Skye Wheatley and Shani Grimmond, two of Australia's Instagram models/influencers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381603/original/file-20210201-19-2kovz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Skye Wheatley and Shani Grimmond, two of Australia’s Instagram models/influencers. Both often wear much less clothing in their photos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Advertising budgets</h2>
<p>The proportion of corporate marketing budgets going to influencers is growing rapidly. In 2019 the advertising spend on influencers globally was an estimated US$8 billion. By next year it is predicted to be <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-2019-influencer-marketing-report-2019-7">US$15 billion</a>. </p>
<p>That spend reflects the growing value of influencers to marketers, who are seen as <a href="https://mediakix.com/influencer-marketing-resources/influencer-marketing-statistics/#campaigns">effective promoters</a> of products to large, dedicated and highly engaged audiences likely to make purchases based on influencer recommendations. </p>
<p>The new code of ethics does oblige influencers to <a href="https://aana.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AANA_Code_of_Ethics_PracticeNote_Effective_February_2021.pdf">disclose their commercial relationships</a> in a clear, upfront and easily understood manner.</p>
<p>But, significantly, the code’s standards (including for overtly sexual imagery) don’t apply to user-generated content “not within an advertiser’s reasonable control even if brands or products are featured”. </p>
<p>That’s a big loophole for advertisers. Influencers tend to make almost all creative decisions in crafting sponsored content. Indeed, a survey commissioned by influencer marketing platform Takumi in 2020 found influencers’ top concern when working with brands was <a href="https://takumi.com/whitepaper2020">retaining creative control</a>. This includes choices about location, staging, lighting, posing, wardrobe, makeup, scripting and directing. </p>
<p>This leaves open various challenges to what can be seen to constitute “reasonable control” for advertisers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-highly-sexualised-imagery-is-shaping-influence-on-instagram-and-harassment-is-rife-113030">How highly sexualised imagery is shaping 'influence' on Instagram - and harassment is rife</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Worlds apart</h2>
<p>The new code’s vision of advertising and the norms of influencer culture are therefore likely to remain worlds apart.</p>
<p>In an ever-evolving media landscape, ensuring advertising standards keep pace is an ongoing challenge. The new code is catching up with community expectations for “mainstream” advertising. </p>
<p>But this progress won’t count for much unless advertisers are also held to account for how corporate money helps to sustain sexist and sexualised stereotypes perpetuated through the influencer market.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren Gurrieri has received funding from the Victorian Government.
</span></em></p>The Australian Association of National Advertisers’ new code of ethics improves standards for mainstream advertising but leaves a big loophole in social influencer marketing.Lauren Gurrieri, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1470392020-10-04T18:55:16Z2020-10-04T18:55:16ZHappy birthday Instagram! 5 ways doing it for the ‘gram has changed us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361271/original/file-20201002-14-1k7h782.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C46%2C7661%2C5057&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1530103862676-de8c9debad1d?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2700&q=80">Unsplash/Adi Goldstein</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tomorrow marks Instagram’s <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/06/instagram-launch/">tenth birthday</a>. Having amassed <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/instagram-1-billion-users/">more than a billion active users</a> worldwide, the app has changed radically in that decade. And it has changed us.</p>
<h2>1. Instagram’s evolution</h2>
<p>When it was <a href="https://instagram-press.com/blog/2010/10/06/">launched</a> on October 6, 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram was an iPhone-only app. The user could take photos (and only take photos — the app could not load existing images from the phone’s gallery) within a square frame. These could be shared, with an enhancing filter if desired. Other users could comment or like the images. That was it.</p>
<p>As we chronicle in <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Instagram:+Visual+Social+Media+Cultures-p-9781509534395">our book</a>, the platform has grown rapidly and been at the forefront of an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22041451.2016.1155332">increasingly visual</a> social media landscape.</p>
<p>In 2012, Facebook <a href="https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/">purchased Instagram</a> for a deal worth a $US1 billion (A$1.4 billion), which in retrospect probably seems cheap. Instagram is now one of the most profitable jewels in the Facebook crown.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CBzBW_nJDQv","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Instagram has integrated new features over time, but it did not invent all of them. </p>
<p>Instagram Stories, with <a href="https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/instagram-stories-is-now-being-used-by-500-million-people-daily/547270/">more than half a billion daily users</a>, was <a href="https://mashable.com/article/kevin-systrom-instagram-stories-snapchat/">shamelessly borrowed</a> from Snapchat in 2016. It allowed users to post 10-second content bites which disappear after 24 hours. The rivers of casual and intimate content (<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/28/15081398/facebook-stories-snapchat-camera-direct">later integrated into Facebook</a>) are widely considered to have <a href="https://www.inpublishing.co.uk/articles/publishing-on-instagram-dos-and-donts-15134">revitalised the app</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, IGTV is Instagram’s answer to YouTube’s longer-form video. And if the <a href="https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-reels-announcement">recently-released Reels</a> isn’t a TikTok clone, we’re not sure what else it could be.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-merging-messenger-and-instagram-chat-features-its-for-zuckerbergs-benefit-not-yours-147261">Facebook is merging Messenger and Instagram chat features. It's for Zuckerberg's benefit, not yours</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Under the influencers</h2>
<p>Instagram is largely responsible for the rapid professionalisation of the influencer industry. Insiders estimated the influencer industry <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report-2020/">would grow to US$9.7 billion (A$13.5 billion) in 2020</a>, though COVID-19 has since <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-coronavirus-is-changing-influencer-marketing-creator-industry-2020-3?r=US&IR=T">taken a toll</a> on this as with other sectors.</p>
<p>As early as in 2011, professional lifestyle bloggers throughout Southeast Asia were moving to Instagram, turning it into a <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137469816_11">brimming marketplace</a>. They sold ad space via post captions and monetised selfies through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305116641342">sponsored products</a>. Such vernacular commerce pre-dates <a href="https://later.com/blog/paid-partnership-feature/">Instagram’s Paid Partnership feature</a>, which launched in late-2017. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Girl takes selfie on street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361328/original/file-20201002-21-1qq70g3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Behind the scenes snaps can enhance Insta-authenticity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1575977229612-efa6908c45f7?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=3289&q=80">Unsplash/Afif Kusuma</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The use of images as a primary mode of communication, as opposed to the text-based modes of the blogging era, facilitated an explosion of aspiring influencers. The threshold for turning oneself into an online brand was dramatically lowered. </p>
<p>Instagrammers relied more on photography and their looks — enhanced by filters and editing built into the platform. </p>
<p>Soon, the “<a href="https://reallifemag.com/layers-of-identity/">extremely professional and polished, the pretty, pristine, and picturesque</a>” started to become boring. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2017/feb/21/finstagram-secret-instagram-account-post-ugly-selfies">Finstagrams</a> (“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/fashion/instagram-finstagram-fake-account.html">fake Instagram</a>”) and secondary accounts proliferated and allowed influencers to display behind-the-scenes snippets and authenticity through calculated <a href="https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2017/09/18/instagram-finstagram-and-calibrated-amateurism/">performances of amateurism</a>. </p>
<h2>3. Instabusiness as usual</h2>
<p>As influencers commercialised Instagram captions and photos, those who had owned online shops <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1329878X16665177">turned hashtag streams into advertorial campaigns</a>. They relied on the labour of followers to publicise their wares and amplify their reach. </p>
<p>Bigger businesses followed suit and so did advice from marketing experts for how best to <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/instagram-post-optimizer/">“optimise” engagement</a>. </p>
<p>In mid-2016, Instagram belatedly launched <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/instagram-officially-announces-its-new-business-tools/">business accounts and tools</a>, allowing companies easy access to back-end analytics. The introduction of the “<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/22/instagram-carousels/">swipeable carousel</a>” of story content in early 2017 further expanded commercial opportunities for businesses by multiplying ad space per Instagram post. This year, in the tradition of Instagram corporatising user innovations, it announced Instagram Shops would allow businesses to <a href="https://business.instagram.com/blog/introducing-shops-on-instagram?locale=en_GB">sell products directly via a digital storefront</a>. Users had previously done this via links. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old polaroid camera." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361283/original/file-20201002-22-1yokiwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original Instagram logo paid tribute to the Polaroid aesthetic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1541544973719-dff4d817a5a3?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2700&q=80">Unsplash/Josh Carter</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-twitter-and-the-way-of-the-hashtag-141693">Friday essay: Twitter and the way of the hashtag</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Sharenting</h2>
<p>Instagram isn’t just where we tell the visual story of ourselves, but also where we <a href="https://mediarxiv.org/s6ev4/">co-create each other’s stories</a>. Nowhere is this more evident than the way parents “<a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/67380/1/Blum-Ross_Sharenting_revised_2nd%20version_2017.pdf">sharent</a>”, posting their children’s daily lives and milestones.</p>
<p>Many children’s Instagram presence begins before they are even born. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1259343">Sharing ultrasound photos</a> has become a standard way to announce a pregnancy. Over 1.5 million public Instagram posts are tagged <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/genderreveal/">#genderreveal</a>. </p>
<p>Sharenting <a href="https://doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/fwmr2">raises privacy questions</a>: who owns a child’s image? Can children withdraw publishing permission later?</p>
<p>Sharenting entails handing over children’s data to Facebook as part of the larger realm of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/20/shoshana-zuboff-age-of-surveillance-capitalism-google-facebook">surveillance capitalism</a>. A saying that emerged <a href="https://blogs.harvard.edu/futureoftheinternet/2012/03/21/meme-patrol-when-something-online-is-free-youre-not-the-customer-youre-the-product/">around the same time</a> as Instagram was born still rings true: “When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product”. We pay for Instagram’s “free” platform with our user data and our children’s data, too, when we share photos of them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Couple holds ultrasound print out." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361279/original/file-20201002-23-19oqszy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many babies appear on Instagram before they are even born.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1598993788510-ea6f626de9ac?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2700&q=80">Meryl Spadaro/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-problem-with-posting-about-your-kids-online-110131">The real problem with posting about your kids online</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. Seeing through the frame</h2>
<p>The apparent “Instagrammability” of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-42012732">a meal</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/travelgram-live-tourist-snaps-have-turned-solo-adventures-into-social-occasions-124583">a place</a>, or <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/selfie-factories-instagram-museum/">an experience</a> has seen the rise of numerous visual trends and tropes. </p>
<p>Short-lived Instagram Stories and disappearing Direct Messages add more spaces to express more things without the threat of permanence. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzmsUKAKNc","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-seeing-the-news-up-close-one-devastating-post-at-a-time-128774">Friday essay: seeing the news up close, one devastating post at a time</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The events of 2020 have shown our ways of seeing on Instagram reveal the possibilities and pitfalls of social media. </p>
<p>In June racial justice activism <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/02/blackout-tuesday-dominates-social-media-millions-show-solidarity-george-floyd">on #BlackoutTuesday</a>, while extremely popular, also had the effect of <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/dont-use-black-lives-matter-on-blackout-tuesday-instagrams.html">swamping the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag</a> with black squares. </p>
<p>Instagram is rife with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/instagram-is-the-internets-new-home-for-hate/585382/">disinformation and conspiracy theories</a> which <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/how-instagram-aesthetics-repackage-qanon/615364/">hijack the look and feel</a> of authoritive content. The <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-au/Instagram:+Visual+Social+Media+Cultures-p-9781509534395">template of popular Instagram content</a> can see familiar aesthetics weaponised to spread misinformation.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the last decade has seen Instagram become one of the main lenses through which we see the world, personally and politically. Users communicate and frame the lives they share with family, friends and the wider world.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/travelgram-live-tourist-snaps-have-turned-solo-adventures-into-social-occasions-124583">#travelgram: live tourist snaps have turned solo adventures into social occasions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tama Leaver receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC); he is currently a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child.
Tama Leaver, Tim Highfield and Crystal Abidin are the co-authors of the book Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures (2020) published by Polity Press. The book has companion social media accounts on Instagram and Twitter. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Crystal Abidin receives funding from the Australia Research Council (DECRA); she has previously received funding from Facebook for a separate project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Highfield does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From sharing snaps to gender reveals and shopfronts, Instagram has changed a lot about how we see the world — and how it sees us.Tama Leaver, Associate Professor in Internet Studies, Curtin UniversityCrystal Abidin, Senior Research Fellow & ARC DECRA, Internet Studies, Curtin University, Curtin UniversityTim Highfield, Lecturer in Digital Media and Society, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1454782020-09-09T11:52:12Z2020-09-09T11:52:12ZWhy the UK government is paying social media influencers to post about coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356130/original/file-20200902-14-eos7ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C598%2C3185%2C2567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">biD LTasgY/unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Social media influencers are often seen as <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-molly-mae-hague-and-the-working-life-of-a-social-influencer-118407">lazy freelancers</a> who make a living being paid to pretend they like products. But these “celebrities’” are more than just marketing vehicles. If used properly, they can be effective agents of positive social change.</p>
<p>Yet the UK government has taken a bold step by <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-paid-reality-tv-stars-to-promote-nhs-test-and-trace-12059587">working with influencers</a> to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. It has paid several social media influencers and reality TV stars to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53968222">promote the NHS test and trace service</a> – the system used when someone tests positive for COVID-19 to work out who else might be at risk after coming in contact with them. The service relies on local public health teams contacting those that may be potentially infected to ask them to self-isolate and test for the virus. However, to date, the service is failing to deliver. This is for many reasons, one of which is the public’s reluctance to <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/06/cafes-restaurants-failing-record-customers-contact-details-test/">share their contact details</a>.</p>
<p>When the system failed to reach its target for the <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-paid-reality-tv-stars-to-promote-nhs-test-and-trace-12059587">ninth week in a row</a>, the government decided to change strategy. This is when it brought in social media players such as Love Island stars Shaughna Phillips, Josh Denzel and Chris Hughes. Phillips, who has 1.5 million followers on her Instagram, posted <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_ih3AByot/">a photo</a> of her with a friend, reminding her followers that <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_ih3AByot/">“the best way for us all to get back to doing the things we love”</a> is by getting tested for coronavirus. She reminded fans that the test and trace service is <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_ih3AByot/">“totally free, quick and is vital to stop the spread of coronavirus”</a> and told them about her experience of using the testing service.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_ih3AByot","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Phillips, just like other influencers involved in this campaign, was paid for her posts. While the government hasn’t revealed how much was spent on the campaign, it claims <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-paid-reality-tv-stars-to-promote-nhs-test-and-trace-12059587">“over 7 million people have been reached”</a> with the messages.</p>
<p>Typically a mega influencer who has more than a million followers will be paid around <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-rates/">£10,000 per post</a> so, of course, there was a debate about whether <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/influencers-paid-government-promote-nhs-test-and-trace-a4536586.html">taxpayers’ money</a> should be used in this way.</p>
<p>However, the right public health messaging doesn’t always reach <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-men-are-more-likely-to-believe-covid-19-myths-so-how-do-we-actually-reach-them-143745">young people</a>. They are often less engaged with mainstream traditional communication channels such as TV, radio and press. Paying popular influencers to promote credible public health messaging is a genuine alternative if the government wants to reach young people.</p>
<h2>Powerful but ordinary</h2>
<p>The impact social media influencers have – on young people in particular – is <a href="https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJBCG.2019.104076">beyond doubt</a>. And their clout is particularly strong now that we’re spending more time at home <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/26/report-whatsapp-has-seen-a-40-increase-in-usage-due-to-covid-19-pandemic/?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABbqkNPCkZw23_O31CN5tWPyqwDDOHb_AoakSs4NcQwPshePil2mQfHPybzzKPTJjfUIHhGtb4yfJfEYQnwJ4uPrB7Je96_75WmOPyX_CpSjn5VoTFgI834Ijywp6s_2SpbYLCn57JYxu57sZQQZRYGoxnEf0gn_AFVH02JI19x2&guccounter=2">online</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, their power is most readily associated with commercial interests. The rise of the influencer has transformed the beauty and fashion industries beyond recognition. Finding the right star to endorse your product on their Instragram or TikTok feed, can make or break a brand <a href="https://www.glossy.co/beauty/tiktoks-charli-and-dixie-damelio-put-1-year-old-orosa-beauty-on-the-map">these days</a>.</p>
<p>They achieve these results by presenting themselves as an approachable <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1742715019889817">“friend”</a> to their social media followers. They have a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296318303229?casa_token=FTLO5MKpgfwAAAAA:gK8YWQmS23Pz6q0fhnqiIMt6oBrQrIiqVDvk8zTc865xGEh3f1JDnrqjH80OT_Hs0WEnxgChcw">greater than average potential to influence others</a> because they build a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1742715019889817">special, intimate bond</a> with their followers by posting content very regularly and communicating with their audience directly. When a fan leaves a comment on an influencer’s post and receives a reply, they feel like they have a relationship with them, which reinforces the influencer’s ability to market products. </p>
<p>In our <a href="http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/34010/">survey</a> of 465 young people, we found that social media influencers’ content and their “authentic” behaviours are linked to consumers’ tendencies to buy products spontaneously without reflection.</p>
<p>Unlike traditional celebrities, who often keep their private lives behind closed doors, social media influencers discuss personal experiences, good or bad, with their followers. They see such sharing as more <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1742715019889817">sincere and trustworthy</a> than content coming from elsewhere. </p>
<p>Beyond these commercial activities, however, influencers have more recently been seen pushing followers to engage with social issues. Audiences are interested in influencers who engage in <a href="https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1274581&dswid=-7666">activism</a> and who take a stand on issues. This has been particularly in evidence during the Black Lives Matter movement, when fans looked to social media stars for <a href="https://www.insider.com/celebrities-influencers-support-black-lives-matter-stop-posting-instagram-2020-6">meaningful statements and positions</a> and even demanded it of them when they were not forthcoming.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1742715019889817">our work</a> around relationships between influencers and followers, we have found that many young people are interested in social media stars who seek to drive change rather than just sell products. This, combined with the personal approach, is what makes influencers an attractive prospect for a government trying to reach young people. If someone like Phillips talks about test and trace on Instagram, young people are likely to react and act. </p>
<p>The World Health Organization has been using <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15252019.2018.1533501">influencer marketing</a> techniques in its coronavirus messaging since April. It has gone a step further <a href="https://www.adweek.com/creativity/why-world-health-organization-virtual-influencer-knox-frost-covid-19-tips/">by using</a> a CGI influencer called Knox Frost to “get accurate, vetted information about COVID-19 in front of millennials and Gen Z”. The computer-generated 20-year-old has been posting to just under <a href="https://www.instagram.com/knoxfrost/?hl=en">a million Instagram</a> followers about coronavirus safety and raising funding for the WHO.</p>
<p>In times when the economy is suffering, many might question why the UK government is paying social media stars to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53968222">promote test and trace services</a>. In reality, spending of this kind has enormous potential to deliver a positive impact. As our studies show, influencers are powerful in shaping the behaviour of their followers. Until now, this was mainly done in the commercial sphere to drive consumption, but now we are seeing more positive uses for their high profiles.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elvira Bolat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social media influencers could have an impact in promoting a test and trace service and changing young people’s attitudes towards COVID-19.Elvira Bolat, Principal Academic in Marketing, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1220822019-12-27T10:43:15Z2019-12-27T10:43:15Z‘Detox products’ may have gone digital, but a historian explains this centuries-old trend<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301760/original/file-20191114-26211-7rfadi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C70%2C6655%2C4387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/filming-beautiful-young-woman-casual-wear-1099279586?src=7fadade6-072b-4035-93cc-3501e944d505-1-1">shutterstock/G-Stock Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you use social media platforms such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-things-you-should-know-about-instagrams-terms-of-use-102800">Instagram</a>, there’s a good chance you’ve seen accounts promoting diet pills and teas. These products often claim to be “<a href="https://theconversation.com/activated-charcoal-doesnt-detox-the-body-four-reasons-you-should-avoid-it-97899">detoxifying</a>”, as well as promising weight loss and increased energy.</p>
<p>The promotion of these products has been so pronounced in recent years that the medical director of the NHS, Stephen Powis, has argued that social media platforms should take down posts that promote these products due to their <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/02/top-doctor-calls-for-ban-on-damaging-and-misleading-celebrity-social-media-ads/">“damaging impact on physical and mental health”</a>. And in recent weeks, Instagram announced it will be removing all posts that make <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/health/instagram-diet-product-policy-a4240256.html">“miraculous” claims about diet or weight loss products</a>.</p>
<p>But while many of these products have specifically targeted millennials, the promotion of diet, detox, and laxative products has been around for centuries. Indeed, in the 19th and 20th centuries, laxative pill products like <a href="http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/objects/display?id=11029">Beecham’s Pills</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/t0ClhFyWR8icbyVtRIrJ2w">Bile Beans</a> enjoyed a particular vogue. They were available over the counter and contained ingredients like ginger, pure soap powder, and aniseed. Although they were primarily laxatives, they also claimed to improve the complexion, boost spirits, and purify the blood.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288800/original/file-20190820-170906-1f1afki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Medically approved Bile Beans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wellcome Collection. CC</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite being controversial, these products were enormously popular. In the House of Lords in 1938, Lord Horder – a leading physician at the time – stated that the public were spending between <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1938/jul/26/quack-medicine-trade">£25-30 million on these products every year</a>. And consumers probably didn’t know exactly what they were ingesting, because many medicine manufacturers were not legally required to list the ingredients of their products on packaging before 1941.</p>
<h2>Trust in advertising</h2>
<p>Similar to the way modern diet pills and teas are advertised, testimonial advertising made 19th and 20th-century over-the-counter medicine brands appear more personal, trustworthy, and authoritative – with recommendations from <a href="https://www.hatads.org.uk/catalogue/record/1f1a7c5b-8af9-48f2-946f-fb388872ece9">non-experts</a> featuring regularly.</p>
<p>There was much debate at the time about whether 19th and 20th-century testimonials were authentic. And while testimonials were <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=I5xBDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=alan+mackintosh+patent+medicine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjG6oTC1ZfmAhVIXsAKHcMVCSUQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">probably based on genuine correspondence from consumers</a>, they still could have been edited.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299446/original/file-20191030-17914-10y9c3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beecham’s Pills claimed to cure ‘bilious and nervous disorders’. In 1890, the company spent £95,000 on advertising a year (the equivalent of £50 million in modern terms).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/advertisement-for-beechams-pills">Wellcome Images</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, it is similarly difficult to tell whether an influencer’s recommendation is genuine. Yet <a href="https://fullscreen.com/2018/03/27/influence-numbers-lowdown-whos-really-influential-online/">a recent study</a> found that trust in “digital creators” is higher than trust in brands. The study found roughly 37% of people age 18-34 were more likely to trust brands after they had seen sponsored posts from influencers. This trust often leads to a purchase: 42% of those exposed to sponsored influencer content reported trying the recommended product or service, while 26% made a purchase. </p>
<p>Advertising via influencers has transformed modern advertising and marketing. It has created a new league of authoritative “experts” that front brands and make them appear more trustworthy, personable, and familiar. This is key to the promotion of health and medicinal products that can positively and negatively affect the body.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-celebrity-non-experts-and-amateur-opinion-could-change-the-way-we-acquire-knowledge-106002">How celebrity non-experts and amateur opinion could change the way we acquire knowledge</a>
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<h2>Misleading consumers?</h2>
<p>British influencers were criticised in the study for not disclosing when posts on Instagram include sponsored content. This caused concern about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/25/social-media-influencers-clear-ads-celebrities-authorities">influencers misleading consumers</a>, as recommendations can seem genuine when they are, in fact, financially motivated.</p>
<p>As a result, influencers have increasingly come under fire from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in Britain. The ASA and the Competition and Markets Authority launched an <a href="https://www.asa.org.uk/resource/influencers-guide.html">“Influencer’s Guide”</a> in September 2018 to ensure influencers make their followers aware of sponsored content. </p>
<p>But even when influencers do disclose paid advertisements with “#ad” they can still be investigated by the ASA. In 2017, Sophie Kasaei, a reality star with over 2 million followers on Instagram, uploaded a picture with “Flat Tummy Tea” online. <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/business/2017/09/flat-tummy-tea-why-asa-cracking-down-influencers-shilling-detox-drinks">The ASA upheld a complaint against her</a> due to a lack of scientific evidence for the claims made. Plus, the name “Flat Tummy Tea” did not comply with the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/labelling_nutrition/claims/register/public/?event=register.home">EU’s register of nutrition and health claims</a>.</p>
<h2>Debunking ‘nonsense’</h2>
<p>The ASA’s concerns demonstrate that modern brands have developed new and increasingly sophisticated ways of overcoming the absence of face-to-face interaction with consumers. And this trust that people invest in social media influencers has led to podcasts, editorial content, and documentaries that aim to “debunk” health trends, products, and diets. BBC podcasts such as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06wwsrk">All Hail Kale</a> investigate “what foods, therapies and lifestyles to embrace – and which are just nonsense”. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-dietitian-puts-extreme-clean-eating-claims-to-the-test-and-the-results-arent-pretty-63675">A dietitian puts extreme 'clean eating' claims to the test – and the results aren't pretty</a>
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<p>Debunking such “nonsense” has similar parallels with the approach taken by the British Medical Association (BMA) towards over-the-counter medicines in the early 20th-century. In <a href="https://archive.org/details/secretremedieswh00brit/page/n6">1909</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/details/moresecretremedi00britiala/page/n4">1912</a>, the BMA set out to “expose” these products by testing their ingredients. They aimed to educate the public, but their approach also cast the public as weak and irrational – ripe for being exploited by “quackery”.</p>
<p>In the same way, podcasts and articles debunk such health claims as “nonsense”, reminiscent of the use of the word “quackery”. But using dismissive language like this fails to understand why these products, treatments and lifestyles are so popular.</p>
<p>Restricting the advertising of these products on Instagram will not stop people from buying them. Long after the BMA tried to tackle the sale of over-the-counter medicines in Britain in the early 20th century, the public continued to buy them. And in being dismissive of these products and those that use them, there is a failure to understand why people consume them in the first place. Instead, more needs to be done to try to understand the complex structures, beliefs, habits, and traditions that motivate consumption of such products in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Bramwell previously received funding from the ESRC.</span></em></p>How a centuries-old product got a makeover for the Instagram age.Erin Elizabeth Bramwell, PhD Candidate in History, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1245832019-12-26T21:40:11Z2019-12-26T21:40:11Z#travelgram: live tourist snaps have turned solo adventures into social occasions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303105/original/file-20191122-74542-nf23x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=264%2C603%2C4949%2C3074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you didn't post it, did it even happen? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTU3NDQzMTgxNSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfNzQxNjk0NjAzIiwiayI6InBob3RvLzc0MTY5NDYwMy9odWdlLmpwZyIsIm0iOjEsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwia1lHTUdvM3V0eHFPTkRuNGhFdTk3UE9RNXNVIl0%2Fshutterstock_741694603.jpg&pi=41133566&m=741694603&src=5dd57731-91f9-491e-9056-34964299a4fb-1-41">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the years since <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32336808">selfie sticks</a> went global, it has become clear that the mobile phone has changed the way we travel.
The ubiquity of social media means tourists can now produce content on the move for their networked audiences to view in close to real time.</p>
<p>Where once we shared slideshows post trip and saved prints and postcards as keepsakes, we now share <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160738315000419">holiday images</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2016.1220969">selfies</a> from the road, sea or air — expanding the “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026327692009003001">tourist gaze</a>” from the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160738315300335">traveller</a> to include remote audiences back home. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/metourism-the-hidden-costs-of-selfie-tourism-87865">#MeTourism: the hidden costs of selfie tourism</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>Instagram-worthy</h2>
<p>Travelling has gone from a solitary quest to a “<a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203861301/chapters/10.4324/9780203861301-21">social occasion</a>”. As such, gazing is becoming inseparably linked with photography. Taking photos has become habitual, rendering the camera as a way of seeing and experiencing new places. </p>
<p>Travellers take selfies that present both locations and people in aesthetically pleasing and positive <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780203861301/chapters/10.4324/9780203861301-21">ways</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/17/instagrammers-travel-sri-lanka-tourists-peachy-backsides-social-media-obsessed">“instagrammability”</a> of a destination is a key motivation for younger people to travel there - even if filters and <a href="https://twitter.com/polina_marinova/status/1146620000679022593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1146620000679022593&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftravel.nine.com.au%2Flatest%2Fbali-gates-of-heaven-attraction-fake-twitter-response%2F9014aa28-f31e-4ad7-912f-6749efc18b26">mirrors</a> have been used to create a less than realistic image. </p>
<p>This transforms the relationship between travellers and their social networks in three important <a href="http://sk.sagepub.com/books/the-tourist-gaze-3-0-3e">ways</a>: between tourists and destination hosts; between fellow tourists; and lastly, between tourists and those that stay home.</p>
<p>The urge to share travel imagery is not without risk. An Australian couple were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-05/australians-released-from-iran/11576776">released</a> from detention in Iran in October, following their arrest for ostensibly flying a drone without a permit. </p>
<p>Other tourists earned derision for scrambling to post selfies at <a href="https://www.news.com.au/travel/australian-holidays/northern-territory/influencers-reason-for-deciding-to-climb-uluru-before-the-ban/news-story/b53928ee54800a6070bc0670b1679356">Uluru</a> before it was closed to climbers. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, there is a sad story behind the newly popular travelgram destination Rainbow Mountain in the Peruvian Andes. It has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/world/americas/peru-rainbow-mountain.html">reportedly</a> only recently emerged due to climate change melting its once snowy peaks. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B5JNHpuAMdr","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Testing the effects</h2>
<p>To understand the way social media photography impacts travelling, we undertook an exploratory <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40558-019-00151-4">study</a> of overnight visitors at zoological accommodation in lavish surrounds. </p>
<p>We divided 12 participants into two groups. One group was directed to abstain from posting on social media but were still able to take photos. The second group had no restrictions on sharing photos. Though the numbers were small, we gathered qualitative information about engagement and attitudes. </p>
<p>Participants were invited to book at <a href="http://www.jamalawildlifelodge.com.au/">Jamala Wildlife Lodge</a> in Canberra. The visit was funded by the researchers — Jamala Wildlife Lodge did not sponsor the research and the interviewees’ stay at the Lodge was a standard visit. We then conducted interviews immediately after their departure from the zoo, critically exploring the full experience of their stay. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B40sRAoDjuS","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The study confirmed that the desire to share travel pictures in close to real time is strongly scripted into the role of the tourist; altering the way travellers engage with sites they are visiting, but also their sense of urgency to communicate this with remote audiences. </p>
<h2>Pics or it didn’t happen</h2>
<p>Participants Mandy and Amy were among those instructed to refrain from posting pictures to social media while at the zoo. They described having to refrain from social media use as a disappointment, even though it seemed to further their engagement. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Interviewer: Did you look at your social media throughout your stay or did you refrain?</p>
<p>Mandy: A bit yeah. But even then, probably not reading it as much as I often would. I don’t think I commented on anything yeah.</p>
<p>Amy: Even today when we put something up [after staying at the Zoo] about the things we’d done today and only a few people had liked it, there was that little bit of disappointment that ‘Oh more people haven’t liked my post.’ Where we didn’t have that for the previous 24 hours [because of the experiment] … because nobody knew about it.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303110/original/file-20191122-74562-4f8vo1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The tension between capturing and experiencing travel is ever-present.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/couple-boyfriend-girlfriend-riding-small-boat-701068276?src=fd7785ef-8ea7-4ee7-8be6-4ec07ce49111-1-8">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The desire for social media recognition resumed after leaving the zoo. For Michelle, posting after the experience presented new concerns: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Interviewer: How did you feel about not being able to post?</p>
<p>Michelle: Spanner in the works! For me personally not being able to post was a negative experience because I wanted to show people what we’re doing, when we’re doing it. </p>
<p>And I also feel, like a couple of people knew we were going to the zoo, right, and knew that we couldn’t use social media. So, when I eventually post it, they’re going to go, ‘She’s been hanging on to those and now she’s posting them and that’s just a bit weird.’ Like, to post it after the event. Everyone normally posts it in real time.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Later, Michelle commented that withholding content from posting to social media also diminished a part of the experience itself: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I sort of feel like if we don’t share the photos it’s like a tree fell down in the forest and no one heard it, like, we’ve had this amazing experience and if I don’t share them, then no one’s going to know that we had this experience, you know, apart from us.</p>
</blockquote>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gta-gWLEtbg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tips garnered from travelgrammers fill lots of online video tutorials.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2><strong>Centre Stage</strong></h2>
<p>Digital photography and social media transform the relationship between the travelling self and its audience, as individuals have an expanded — and potentially diversified — audience. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160738315300335">Selfies in tourist contexts</a> reflect the tourist gaze back at the tourist, rather than outward.</p>
<p>The perfect digital postcard now incorporates the self centrestage. As one participant suggested:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Shannon: It almost feels like it’s kind of an expected behaviour when you are doing something touristy … We’ve actually had tour guides before … kind of a bit disappointed if you don’t take a photograph. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The purpose of photography has <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1470357207084865">shifted</a> from a memory aid to a way of sharing experience in the moment. There is tension now between the need to capture tourist experiences for digital sharing and individual engagement in the tourist activity. Decrying the desire to use photography as a way of communicating experience will not constructively address this tension.</p>
<p>To ensure tourism sustainability, and engagement with their target market, tourism providers need to explore better ways to manage travellers’ face-to-face and digital engagement.</p>
<p>Digital engagements have become a defining part of travel, and organisations should be encouraged to promote online sharing of experiences — phone charging stations and photo competitions were two suggestions offered by our interviewees. </p>
<p>In contrast, device-free days or activities could be another way to encourage face-to-face engagement and prompt tourists to be more considered with their online sharing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi F Dale is affiliated with National Capital Attractions Association of which the zoo mentioned in the article is a financial member.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raechel Johns received funding from Murray Darling Basin Futures for the data collection for this study.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael James Walsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Where once we subjected friends to post-holiday slideshows, now we share travel selfies live with a remote audience. This study teased out the tension between snapping and experiencing the trip.Michael James Walsh, Assistant Professor Social Science, University of CanberraNaomi F Dale, Associate Professor of Management, University of CanberraRaechel Johns, Head of the Canberra Business School and Professor of Marketing and Service Management, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1232672019-11-17T19:22:27Z2019-11-17T19:22:27ZAn 8-year-old made US$22 million on YouTube, but most social media influencers are like unpaid interns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301883/original/file-20191115-26250-1w1si8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A whopping 12% of the population aged 13 to 38 consider themselves social influencers, according to marketing company Morning Consult.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Like any eight-year-old, Ryan Kaji loves to play with toys. But when Ryan plays, millions watch.</p>
<p>Since the age of four he’s been the star of his own YouTube channel. All up his videos have gained more than 35 billion views. This helped make him YouTube’s highest-earning star in 2018, earning US$22 million, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2018/12/03/highest-paid-youtube-stars-2018-markiplier-jake-paul-pewdiepie-and-more/">according to Forbes</a>. </p>
<p>That’s more than actor Jake Paul (US$21 million), the trick-shot sports crew Dude Perfect (US$20 million), Minecraft player DanTDM (US$18.5 million) and make-up artist Jeffree Star (US$18 million). </p>
<p>Ryan is apparently living the dream of many kids – and adults.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://theharrispoll.com/lego-group-kicks-off-global-program-to-inspire-the-next-generation-of-space-explorers-as-nasa-celebrates-50-years-of-moon-landing/">Harris Poll/LEGO survey</a> covering the United States, Britain and China, 29% of children aged eight to 12 want to be a “YouTuber”. That’s three times as many as those who want to be astronauts. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-social-media-turning-people-into-narcissists-66573">Is social media turning people into narcissists?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.awin.com/gb/news-and-events/awin-news/nearly-one-fifth-of-british-children-aspire-to-be-social-media-influencers">Other polls</a> suggest an even higher percentage of teenagers aspire to fame and fortune via YouTube or another social media platform. An eye-grabbing news report out this month suggested a whopping <a href="https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/The-Influencer-Report-Engaging-Gen-Z-and-Millennials.pdf">54% of Americans aged 13 to 38</a> would become an “influencer” given the chance, with 12% already considering themselves influencers.</p>
<p>These numbers might be questioned, but given the apparent fortunes to be made by goofing around, playing games, applying makeup or unboxing toys, it’s no surprise so many are besotted with the influencer dream. </p>
<p>But there’s a stark divide between the glossy façade and reality of this new industry. The fact is most wannabe influencers have as much a chance of walking on the Moon as they do of emulating Ryan Kaji. They’ll be lucky, in fact, to earn as much as someone working at fast-food joint. </p>
<p>Let’s take a look at the numbers.</p>
<h2>Marketing’s new foot soldiers</h2>
<p>Marketing literature defines an influencer as someone with a large following on a social media platform, primarily YouTube and Instagram. </p>
<p>As people consume less traditional media and spend more time on social platforms, advertisers are increasingly using these influencers to spruik their products. A mega-influencer like Kylie Jenner, with 139 million followers on Instagram, can reportedly charge more than <a href="https://www.hopperhq.com/blog/instagram-rich-list/">US$1 milllion</a> for a single promotional post.</p>
<p>In 2017 an estimated US$570 million was spent globally on influencer marketing. In 2020, according to the <a href="https://www-warc-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/content/article/admap/eight_tips_for_spotting_fake_influencers_on_instagram/124852">World Advertising Research Center</a>, it will be between US$5 billion and US$10 billion. </p>
<p>A key driver of this booming market is that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2019/03/19/47-percent-of-consumers-are-blocking-ads/#7cd4b33a2037">about half of consumers</a> use ad-blocking technology, which limits the reach of traditional advertising.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-authenticity-and-advertising-collide-on-social-media-50397">When authenticity and advertising collide on social media</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Keeping up appearances</h2>
<p>One company to really embrace the social influencer trend is cosmetics giant Estee Lauder. In August the company’s chief executive, Fabrizio Freda, said <a href="https://talkinginfluence.com/2019/08/27/estee-lauders-commits-75-of-its-advertising-budget-to-influencers/">75% of its advertising budget</a> was now going to social media influencers, “and they’re revealing to be highly productive”. </p>
<p>But while part of the company’s budget is going to “micro-influencers” – those with <a href="https://buffer.com/resources/micro-influencers">fewer than 10,000 followers</a> – it’s likely the bulk is still wrapped up in deals with big-name “spokesmodels” and “brand ambassadors” like <a href="https://www.allure.com/story/karlie-kloss-estee-lauder-global-spokesmodel-brand-ambassador">Karlie Kloss</a>, <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/grace-elizabeth-is-este-lauders-newest-spokesmodel.html">Grace Elizabeth</a>, <a href="https://www.elle.com/beauty/makeup-skin-care/a13595934/fei-fei-sun-estee-lauder-spokesmodel/">Fei Fei Sun</a>, <a href="https://www.crfashionbook.com/beauty/a22487704/model-anok-yai-estee-lauders-spokesmodel/">Anok Yai</a> and <a href="https://www.esteelauder.com.au/estee-stories-article-ready-set">Kendall Jenner</a>. </p>
<p>In a sense these celebrity deals aren’t much different to what the cosmetics company <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/a-brief-history-of-estee-lauder-models-104878623693.html">has done for decades</a> with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Elisabeth Hurley and Karen Graham.</p>
<h2>Unpaid internships</h2>
<p>So far most of the indications are that the new economics of influencer marketing are not too different to the old economics of marketing. </p>
<p>As in the acting, modelling or music industry, there’s a tiny A-list of superstar influencers making millions. Then there’s a somewhat larger B-list making a handsome living. But the vast bulk of influencers would be better off getting an ordinary job.</p>
<p>In 2018 a professor at the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany, Mathias Bärtl, published a <a href="https://scinapse.io/papers/2784178595">statistical analysis</a> of YouTube channels, uploads and views over a decade. His results showed that 85% of traffic went to just 3% of channels, and that 96.5% of YouTubers wouldn’t make enough money to reach the <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/40537244/96-5-of-youtube-creators-dont-make-above-the-u-s-poverty-line">US federal poverty line</a> (US$12,140, or about A$17,900). </p>
<p>Cornell University associate professor Brooke Erin Duffy suggests the lure of being a social influencer is part of a larger myth about the digital economy providing the opportunity for fulfilment, fame and fortune in doing what you love through developing your “personal brand”. </p>
<p>This is a particularly problematic illusion for young women, Duffy writes in her 2017 book <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300218176/not-getting-paid-do-what-you-love">(Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-highly-sexualised-imagery-is-shaping-influence-on-instagram-and-harassment-is-rife-113030">How highly sexualised imagery is shaping 'influence' on Instagram - and harassment is rife</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The tales of achievement, she says, should not obscure the reality. Rather than a satisfying career, what most have is an “<a href="https://qz.com/1049408/becoming-a-social-media-influencer-is-the-new-unpaid-internship-and-just-as-exploitative/">unpaid internship</a>”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalya Saldanha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Increasing numbers of children, and adults, want to be social media influencers. They would be better off aspiring to be astronauts.Natalya Saldanha, Academic, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1242782019-10-24T18:59:57Z2019-10-24T18:59:57ZFriday essay: thrills, booze and athleisure gear - writing on the road<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298421/original/file-20191023-119449-147x79i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C24%2C1762%2C1215&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ubud is host to expat yogis, digital nomads and a writers' festival.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two of the best known 20th century road stories are arguably <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/on-the-road-9780241347959">On the Road</a> by Jack Kerouac and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178186/fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-by-hunter-s-thompson/">Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</a> by Hunter S. Thompson. In 1959 Kerouac <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLpNKo09Xk">appeared on the Steve Allen show</a> – smouldering, all chiselled jaw and on the good edge of tanked. </p>
<p>Kerouac answered Allen’s question about the <a href="https://g.co/kgs/zZNHWg">Beat</a> generation he was supposed to have defined with a resigned air. Allen tinkled on a set of keys an age away from the hip vibe he was trying to get at, Kerouac oozed cool without really trying, describing Beat in one word as “sympathetic”. </p>
<p>Allen moved on to asking Kerouac how long it took him to write On the Road. “Three weeks”. And how long he was on the road for? “Seven years”.</p>
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<p>Living the life always takes a little longer. </p>
<p>I’m thinking of this as I watch a young girl twirling the tail of her sparkling mermaid at the Coolangatta airport – already the sequins have started to fall off, blue and pink trails under her feet. I smile at her mother. Falling in love with other people’s kids for 30 seconds at a time is easy when you’re in transit. </p>
<h2>Three festivals in three weeks</h2>
<p>I’m going to be on the road for three weeks, at three writer’s festivals, in three different countries – the <a href="https://australianshortstoryfestival.com/">Australian Short Story Festival</a> in Melbourne, the <a href="http://www.ubudwritersfestival.com/">Ubud Writers and Readers Festival</a> in Bali and the <a href="https://apwriters.org/">Asia Pacific Writers & Translators</a> event in Macau. </p>
<p>I couldn’t trail a kid around for all that and that’s partly why I don’t have any kids trailing after me at all. At 22 I fell in love with another kind of life, the kind described to me in books like On The Road and Fear and Loathing. </p>
<p>Kerouac declaring that God is Pooh Bear and Thompson’s arsenal of drugs in the boot of that Chevrolet Caprice read like a litany against conformity – that hallucinatory run on Route 66 with the bats swirling and the crazy lawyer ranting took me down another path. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-fear-and-loathing-in-las-vegas-68734">Guide to the classics: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</a>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298425/original/file-20191023-119405-x48qn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Right now, a strong latte and a couple of hastily popped pharmies is about the best I can do. No one is ever gonna out-do that car boot. And maybe that’s OK. Maybe I dug these stories more when I was in my 20s and the romance of the legends hadn’t waned like they kind of have now.</p>
<p>These were the big stories we supped on when shirtless young men used to sit on the front verandas of my share houses in the sunshine drinking cups of tea. Back then they looked like Dean Moriarty looked to Jack. Then those same boys became Hare Krishnas and the rest of us got real jobs. </p>
<h2>The most cake</h2>
<p>Both Hunter and Kerouac ended up at the bottom of bottles that couldn’t be tilted right. Hunter had to get Johnny Depp to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/feb/01/johnny-depp-spent-3m-blasting-hunter-s-thompson-ashes-from-cannon-ex-managers-claim">shoot</a> him out of his. While I know I’ll be sidling up to as many free booze ships as I can find on this trip, when it comes to the books, maybe now, I want a different modus operandi. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298426/original/file-20191023-119433-19q3125.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). In 2017 Depp’s former managers alleged he spent $3 million firing the late author Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes from a cannon.</span>
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<p>It’s easy when you’re younger to glorify the edge. When it comes to living it before you write it, I still rate the philosophy that Hunter and Kerouac understood: to get at the subject, sometimes you have to cave in and be seduced. But that kind of thinking ended up killing them both. </p>
<p>I’ve pushed the envelope. On writing assignments or residencies I’ve ended up at the top of exclusive nightclubs in Dubai drunk and bemused, being sexually harassed in expat mansions in Hanoi, fearing for my life but still laughing with carloads of Irish comedians on skinny roads outside Monaghan. All of it grist for the mill. When the pieces I filed came out nobody I was with could believe I remembered any of it.</p>
<p>Alcohol and other mind-bending substances often play a role. Writers are less likely to be concerned with routines, with their speaking schedules or the tedious festival hierarchies when they’re feeling loose, when they’re looking for something else, getting reminded of why they’re even at this festival in the first place. Even when you push it too far, when it comes to art, the edge is everything. </p>
<p>I’m reminded of the love-hate intersection I have with limits at the Australian Short Story festival in Melbourne where the vibe is intimate and generous but the opening night party dies by 9pm. </p>
<p>The wives of male writers are up the back holding the babies. Just me and a Canadian writer task ourselves with holding up the bar for everyone else. On the second night, I bail out after the readings, which are great but go on too long. I find a party for an old friend with a fellow edge skater. When we arrive, everyone’s in fancy dress and we aren’t. Lady Gaga answers the door, Freddie Mercury is on the DJ decks and we dance until 3am with a perfectly bedraggled looking Courtney Love. I wanna be the girl with the most cake. </p>
<p>But then I’m hungover and have a 10.30am session and want to die, especially when my phone rings while I’m reading a story off it and it’s Lady Gaga from the night before. I tell her to say hello to the crowd.</p>
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<h2>Wish you were here</h2>
<p>I wanna be like the writer <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/elizabeth-costello">Elizabeth Costello</a> in Coetzee’s book of the same name, going for her last supper alone at a little Italian joint in New York. It’s her last book tour, her last trip around the world. I want to look at cityscapes and handsome waiters and cutlery like that – as if everything is remarkable again.</p>
<p>Or be like <a href="https://www.thejoandidion.com/about">Joan Didion</a>, writing about the world as if she’s always looking at it through the panorama of a windscreen – Californian nights and blue days, oversized sunglasses on, looking hard, sentences forming in her head as sharp as knives. </p>
<p>It was the road that saved French author <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/08/09/feminize-your-canon-violette-leduc/">Violette Leduc</a>. After months of touring the European countryside, she walked right into a small town and found an old villa and a sun-browned man after years in Paris slicing off the mouldy edges of small blocks of cheese. Those failed books sank like stones. </p>
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<p>It was the road and that house she found by accident and Simone de Beauvoir depositing money into her account she said was from the publisher that allowed Violette to get out from the city that didn’t know it wanted her – eating apples on hillsides, writing <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/99089.La_B_tarde?from_search=true">La Batarde</a> in her notebook - and a man who lifted her skirt in just the right way and exactly how her ex-husband never did. </p>
<p>Skin, air and something new that poured forth a book that made her a household name. </p>
<p>In Ubud, land of expat yogis and digital nomads, I’m seated next to an Instagram star. Both our laptops are open – me writing this and she set on ratcheting up the followers on her account. </p>
<p>The perfect, bulbous mounds of her fake tits feature heavily in shots of her swinging over rice fields or waterfalls that she doesn’t need to filter or hovering above her matcha shakes and gogi bowls.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The 16th Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is exploring the concept of karma.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>What to pack</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=913&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298423/original/file-20191023-119449-19u1y8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>So, I guess being on the road means something else now. It’s not Kerouac and Moriarty in Cadillacs driving away from the thrilling sadness of fucking each other’s wives with “all that road going and all the people dreaming in the immensity of it”. </p>
<p>The road is this woman in athleisure wear and a guy writing for <a href="https://writingcooperative.com/">The Writing Cooperative</a> in an article extolling the virtues of five essential items the travelling writer should carry.</p>
<p>Fieldnotes pocket books because “they look and feel amazing”. A Parker Pen Jotter and a Parker Pen Classic “for more sophisticated writing,” which he describes as his letters and correspondence rather than his actual writing. Bose noise cancelling headphones which you must use with caution because when wearing them “you’re essentially deaf to everyday life”. A newspaper because it’s important to take “screen breaks”. Finally, a <a href="https://remarkable.com/">reMarkable</a> tablet because “imagine being able to hand write something you can publish on the internet without having to transcribe it? So valuable”. </p>
<p>My soul dies a little. So, despite the risks, despite the possibility I might do or say something I’ll regret at 3am at the wrong decibel level, and despite the fact that it might be unfashionable, I resolve to keep the spirit of On the Road and Fear and Loathing alive.</p>
<p>Because followers and implements are starting to matter more than being able to listen with your ears and see out of your own eyes. I’m going to go to that closing night party of the Ubud Writers and Reader’s Festival. Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh is rumoured to be DJing and I’m gonna scratch out notes on someone else’s wrist, undo my belt and look for trouble. Hopefully, I’ll see you on the other side.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Breen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The road to three writers’ festivals in three weeks prompts reflection on authors liberated by road trips - and those sharing the journey now.Sally Breen, Senior Lecturer in Writing and Publishing, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1184072019-06-12T08:15:27Z2019-06-12T08:15:27ZLove Island: Molly-Mae Hague and the working life of a ‘social influencer’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278888/original/file-20190611-32331-ydmrlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=278%2C112%2C1485%2C960&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury on their jacuzzi 'date'.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ITV2</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Love Island returned to screens in the UK for a fifth season on June 1, alongside the usual discussion of who was going to couple up with whom – which is, let’s face it, what makes the show tick – the employment status of islander Molly-May Hague prompted a bit of a stir on social media. </p>
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<p>Within her introduction video and during her date with boxer Tommy Fury, Hague described her job as a “social influencer” who “does social media … Instagram”. Immediately, viewers took to Twitter to discuss her job role, with many claiming that a “social influencer” was simply a more acceptable way of saying she was unemployed. Others defended her “influencer” profession as a legitimate form of work.</p>
<p>Given that the show has an estimated audience of 13.3m on ITV2, it’s not a bad platform for someone with that job description. But this debate around Molly-Mae’s job shows how we need to think about the growing trend of social influencers and whether what they do constitutes a new and emerging form of 21st century work. </p>
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<h2>2019: year of the influencer?</h2>
<p>Millennials (people born in the early 1980s to the early 2000s) <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Millennials-Adept-Filtering-Ads/1012335">do not respond to traditional media advertisements</a>. Instead, they tend to use social media to communicate how they feel about products and businesses. So in order for businesses to capitalise on these online conversations, an entirely new approach to advertising is needed. “Influencer marketing” is emerging as one of the main solutions to this need. </p>
<p>The main premise of influencer marketing is that brands identify and pay social media celebrities – individuals with a large enough fan base to interest advertisers – to advertise products to their personal social media following. The idea is that consumers trust these “influencers” almost as friends and are more likely to have a positive reaction to a brand or product recommended by someone they trust in this way.</p>
<p>So, for example, the dress Kylie Jenner wore for her 21st birthday resulted in a spike triggered by her 137m Instagram followers – internet searches for “pink dress” reportedly <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/global-influencers-kim-kardashian-kylie-jenner-meghan-markle-ariana-grande-cardi-b">increased by 107%</a> in the 48 hours after she posted her picture. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BmWPO_pl2Bw/?utm_source=ig_embed","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Then there is her half-sister, Kim Kardashian. Awarded the first ever <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysAec0JWKuc">CFDA Influencer Award</a> in 2018, Kim reportedly charges between <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-kim-kardashian-charges-for-instagram-endorsement-deals-2019-5?r=US&IR=T">US$300,000-$500,000 per single Instagram post</a>. For longer-term collaborations with a brand, deals can reach into the many millions of dollars. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.adweek.com/digital/giordano-contestabile-activate-by-bloglovin-guest-post-influencer-marketing-in-2018/">2018 article</a>, AdWeek magazine suggested that the influencer market would be worth over US$10 billion by the end of 2019. Within the UK alone, the allocation of marketers’ budgets put aside for influencer marketing campaigns has nearly <a href="https://rakutenmarketing.com/en-uk/press-articles/marketers-spending-in-excess-of-800000-per-year-on-influencer-campaigns-nearly-double-from-2017-as-they-aim-to-tackle-measurement-challenges">doubled to 40%</a> in 2019.</p>
<h2>But is it a job?</h2>
<p>It’s no surprise, then, that many are desperate to start a career in the influencer industry. Alongside traditional celebrities, social media has also enabled ordinary users to build their own fan base of followers and earn a living by collaborating with brands and creating content on social media. </p>
<p>But this new and emerging form of work brings new challenges and problems. Former Love Island Australia star Cassidy McGill recently used an Instagram story to <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/reality-tv/its-a-hard-job-love-islands-cassidy-on-the-reality-of-being-an-influencer/news-story/c510deb7782d3d6e1ff95458f696bd6f">outline some of the pressures</a> of her social media career. The recent backlash directed at Molly-Mae shows the continued stigma faced by influencers and the dismissal of the job, as McGill notes, as simply getting “paid a shitload to do fuck all”. </p>
<p>Through my own <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/nina-willment(a5f8fa28-ce22-4549-b6c7-558d6a005519).html">research</a> working with bloggers and influencers in the travel sphere, it appears bloggers and influencers actually invest a large variety of online and offline work in order to successfully become an influencer. </p>
<p>Individuals typically work long hours building relationships and continually engaging with their fan base, alongside working to create and curate content for brands. This typically results in the transformation of spaces of leisure such as holidays or meal times into spaces of work, as influencers feel they have to relentlessly share their life with their audience. </p>
<p>As a result, influencers have to deal with the pressure of constantly being available and accountable to their followers and wider audience. Offline, this work spills over into creating and curating a desirable image of themselves, which can involve both unrelenting physical and emotional management. </p>
<p>The true realities of this form of work and its resulting pressures on health and well-being are central issues which prompted ITV to <a href="https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/love-island-2019-itv-aftercare-plan-contestants-deaths-mike-thalassitis-sophie-gradon/">revise the aftercare</a> for Love Island contestants to be more comprehensive and include bespoke social media training. This revision followed public outcry after the tragic passing of former Love Island contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis who both <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/19/love-island-bosses-confirm-changes-show-deaths-mike-thalassitis-sophie-gradon-8951991/https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/19/love-island-bosses-confirm-changes-show-deaths-mike-thalassitis-sophie-gradon-8951991/">died by suicide</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jeremy-kyle-show-a-psychologist-explains-the-risks-in-reality-tv-and-how-aftercare-should-be-done-117287">Jeremy Kyle Show: a psychologist explains the risks in reality TV and how aftercare should be done</a>
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<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/1-of-5-british-children-want-a-career-as-social-media-influencers/114597">survey</a>, one in five British 11- to 16-year-olds said they wanted to be a social media influencer when they grew up. This result, alongside the sheer value and scale of the industry, suggests that the influencer is here to stay. It’s high time we recognised the amount of work that successful influencers invest in the role and acknowledged those working in this intense and precarious world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nina Willment receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Is ‘social influencer’ a real job? It’s all about work-life balance.Nina Willment, PhD Candidate, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1130302019-05-07T20:08:43Z2019-05-07T20:08:43ZHow highly sexualised imagery is shaping ‘influence’ on Instagram - and harassment is rife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/272344/original/file-20190502-103060-t5un39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The body plays a crucial role in Instagram influencers' selfies.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/adult-body-bra-woman-lingerie-1869735/">https://pixabay.com/photos/adult-body-bra-woman-lingerie-1869735/</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians are some of the most active social media users in the world and Instagram is <a href="https://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-january-2019/">particularly popular</a>. One in three of us have an account, with more than 9,000,000 monthly active users. The rise of Instagram reflects our increasingly visual culture, with <a href="https://www.sensis.com.au/about/our-reports/sensis-social-media-report">45% of Australians having taken a selfie</a> and uploaded it to social media. </p>
<p>But Instagram isn’t just a place for personal photos, it’s big business. The platform is the birthplace and breeding ground of influencer marketing: a relatively new, multi-billion dollar industry, <a href="http://mediakix.com/2018/03/influencer-marketing-industry-ad-spend-chart/#gs.48ychl">projected to grow</a> from US$6 billion in 2018 to US$10 billion in 2020.</p>
<p>Influencers generate digital content and gain the attention of a “following” on social media through representations of their everyday lives, in which various commodities and brands play a vital role. The larger the audience, and the more attention they receive, the greater the monetisation potential. </p>
<p>Most influencers, are women, who aspire to build a personal brand. There are <a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4030790/InfluencerDB-State-of-the-Industry-2018.pdf">more than 558,000 influencers</a> on Instagram who have more than 15,000 followers. </p>
<p>Theirs is a precarious form of work, with none of the traditional workplace protections and they can can spend an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1329878X16665177">extraordinary amount of time and effort</a> generating the “perfect shot” to upload. It’s a job that is always “on”, with the platform functioning 24/7 and delivering a constant stream of notifications. </p>
<p>The body plays a crucial role in influencers’ selfies. Conforming to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2056305115604337">rigid standards of attractiveness and femininity</a> is fundamental to their gaining attention. This means a lot of work for them but also has broader cultural effects in <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-media-the-bikini-bridge-and-the-viral-contagion-of-body-ideals-87262">shaping attitudes about body image</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/social-media-the-bikini-bridge-and-the-viral-contagion-of-body-ideals-87262">Social media, the 'bikini bridge' and the viral contagion of body ideals</a>
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<hr>
<p>One of the easiest ways for women to gain attention on social media is through a highly sexualised aesthetic, which is increasingly “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2374623816643281">pornified</a>”, i.e., borrowing a “look” associated with mainstream, pornographic imagery.</p>
<p>We analysed <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwao.12354">172 female influencers’ social media pages over a period of four months</a>. They ranged from women who willingly promote brands with no remuneration to those who market themselves as a personal brand. Our sample of influencers was drawn internationally and sourced from “shoutout pages”, which act as virtual currency to build popularity and thus gain attention. We analysed the images, interactions, and comments of the influencers studied.</p>
<p>We found a continuum of pornified self-representations by these social media influencers on Instagram. This ranged from “softer” references – where influencers pose to highlight sexualised body parts and employ “porn chic” gestures such as gently pulling their hair, touching their parted lips and squatting with legs spread to the camera – to images that were hard to differentiate from mainstream commercial pornography. </p>
<p>Here, pornified representations grab viewers’ attention with the goal of being monetised to sell products, such as protein powder, gummy vitamins, or detox tea.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BvtUp6dgwvj","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Our data does not show an enormous breadth of ways in which women might wish to be sexual, but rather a fairly monotonous repetition of “sexiness” and sexual availability that is shaped by porn chic.</p>
<p>The women in our study ranged from having hundreds of followers to millions.
Those with a higher number of followers were associated with a more explicitly pornified aesthetic – sometimes using the Instagram platforms to redirect viewers to more direct paid-access pornography on external sites such as OnlyFans.com or private messaging applications like Snapchat and WhatsApp. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu4Mwl3nTmj","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>But all of this monetised attention comes at a cost of significant sexual harassment, which <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/10/instagram-has-massive-harassment-problem/572890/">many argue is poorly policed</a> by Instagram. Monitoring the women’s social media feeds, we found that many female influencers are subject to sexually aggressive comments, objectifying messages from followers, and a lack of privacy in their personal lives. Influencers in our study were subject to sexual solicitation and even physical threats. </p>
<p>Such comments range from: “I would love your art work but it’s your bum I want”, or “love to spank and kiss your gorgeous ass”, to the more aggressive “Turn around before I take out my dick and beat you…”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/264290/original/file-20190318-28487-4u8fb6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sexually aggressive comment on an influencer’s posted image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Instagram.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rebuking harassment or deleting hostile comments also comes at a cost for influencers. More engagement, including these kinds of comments, results in more potential attention for a given post. This, in turn, is directly tied to their ability to monetise influence. </p>
<p>Hence, we found that reading such harassment, and making the choice to not delete it, simply becomes “part of the job”. The fear of losing a partnership with a brand is always a concern, so influencers build their audience by engaging with followers in upbeat, positive and convivial ways. </p>
<p>The intensity, volume and public nature of this harassment makes social media influencers particularly vulnerable. They do not have the support of a traditional workplace and employer in dealing with these constant and inescapable interactions. </p>
<p>As well as having negative consequences for the influencers themselves, the trend towards a pornified aesthetic also has consequences for gender equality, more broadly. It’s an aesthetic that positions women and girls as existing for men’s sexualised consumption.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113030/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A study of Instagram influencers has found most employ a highly sexualised aesthetic drawn from mainstream adult film. And many are subject to sexual harassment, ranging from aggressive comments to physical threats.Jenna Drenten, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Loyola University ChicagoLauren Gurrieri, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, RMIT UniversityMeagan Tyler, Senior lecturer, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1092162019-02-03T17:55:49Z2019-02-03T17:55:49ZFairy-tale social media fantasies can demolish your confidence, but it’s not all bad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256471/original/file-20190130-42594-wkv4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C572%2C4499%2C2417&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sometimes faking it on Instagram is just fine. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruno Gomiero/ Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If social media was a person, you’d probably avoid them.</p>
<p>Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are loaded with pictures of people going to exotic places, looking like they are about to be on the cover of <em>Vogue</em>, and otherwise living a fairy-tale existence. And, like all fairy tales, these narratives feel a lot like fiction.</p>
<p>When you compare the “projected reality” to your lived experience, it would be easy to conclude that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tricia_Yurak/publication/288381712_The_phenomenology_of_the_impostor_phenomenon/links/571f5dbf08aefa64889a7241.pdf">you do not measure up.</a> Research shows that young adults are especially vulnerable to this <a href="https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/">phenomenon.</a> </p>
<p>We have also studied this trend in graduate students, our next generation of scholars: they too, implicitly compare themselves to their peers, sometimes <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/Motivation-Wellness-and-Thriving">automatically</a>. We’re socially trained to do this as shown by a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15298860600805325">litany of research studies</a> exploring our relationships with other’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144516300912">projected images</a>.</p>
<p>These implicit comparisons can threaten your <a href="http://doi.apa.org/journals/amp/55/1/68.html">innate psychological needs</a>: autonomy, competence and relatedness. Not just one of them. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/stories/social-media-bad-teens-mental-health">ALL OF THEM</a>. And such comparisons have shifted life online towards an unwinnable competition. </p>
<p>We are outnumbered and out-posted by other people and it can make us feel unequivocally terrible if we let it. It’s never been easier to be insecure about ourselves and our achievements thanks to the ever-present torrent of “updates” posted by mostly well-meaning people seeking opportunities for connection and validation.</p>
<h2>Where did this come from?</h2>
<p>Social media fills our days, but it hasn’t always. In fact, the birth of sites and apps like the micro-blogging platform <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/founder-stories-why-david-karp-started-tumblr-blogs-dont-work-for-most-people/">Tumblr</a> (2007), the bite-sized conversation builder <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/history-of-twitter-3288854">Twitter</a> (2006) and star-studded <a href="https://www.inc.com/30under30/2011/profile-kevin-systrom-mike-krieger-founders-instagram.html">Instagram</a> (2010) all arrived on the technology scene in tandem with the <a href="https://www.popsci.com/evolution-kindle">e-book revolution</a>. And yet, in just over a decade, these tools have exploded across our browsers, into our phones and onto our self-perceptions. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/6/25/17501224/instagram-facebook-snapchat-time-spent-growth-data">People appear to be spending an hour a day on various social media apps</a>, which doesn’t sound too rough if we assume everyone is only using one app. However, the tendency for younger users to embrace multiple social media apps (and to access their accounts multiple times a day) is <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/">increasing</a>.</p>
<p>What that means for many of us is that we are spending hours each day connected and consuming content, from short tweets to beautifully staged <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bookstagram-how-readers-changed-the-way-we-use-instagram_us_59f0aaa2e4b01ecaf1a3e867">#bookstagram</a> images to painstakingly crafted selfies that sometimes make it seem like our friends are living the glamorous life, even when they’re waking up before dawn to take care of their little ones. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bstn-T9FozD","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Social media presences are not inherently fake, but some people interacting in these spaces feel pressure to perform. And that’s not always bad! </p>
<p>As argued by <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are">Amy Cuddy</a>, sometimes it’s helpful to pretend we are who we want to be in order to give ourselves the confidence to grow into our futures. There’s a rich history to <a href="https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/2004/04/the-power-of-acting-as-if.aspx">“acting as if”</a> in spiritual and growth-oriented spaces. But there’s a line between “fake it till you become it” and spending the <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/worklife/a9619808/how-to-become-instagram-famous-experiment/">afternoon shooting awkward photos to gain more “likes.”</a></p>
<h2>Dark point of the soul</h2>
<p>After conducting about 60 interviews and 2,500 surveys across two ongoing studies of post-secondary students, the findings indicate that being constantly compared to other people can demolish our confidence <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328203318_Title_The_price_of_admission_Examining_how_expectancies_and_values_can_overcome_innovation's_costs">quickly</a>. </p>
<p>For example, one first-year PhD student told us: “I feel like a failure because I don’t have any papers out and I haven’t won a major scholarship like the rest of my lab group.” A first-year student?! </p>
<p>Another commented: “All my peers are better than me, why am I even here?” </p>
<p>These are high-performing thinkers, and yet their confidence is being steamrolled in part because social media does not facilitate fair comparisons.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256472/original/file-20190130-124043-k49fvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Being constantly compared to other people is not good for us.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pj Accetturo / Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We wish these experiences were unique to certain contexts, but they are ubiquitous. We’ve become so used to seeing the world through social media that we give it <a href="https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/245/False-Equivalence">false equivalence</a> with our lived experience. We implicitly compare our lives against the sensation of social media and consider it a fair contention. </p>
<p>Of course, the mundane doesn’t measure up to social media. Social media posts need to be epic to be shared.</p>
<p>Hardly anyone posts a “meh” status update; our social media posts are typically at one extreme or another, good or bad, and we are left to compare our individual realities with an exceptional anecdote devoid of context. It’s all of the sugar, with none of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46827426">the fibre</a>. </p>
<h2>It’s not all a pit of despair</h2>
<p>Despite this relatively grim picture, the way we’re performing on social media isn’t entirely destructive. For starters, <a href="https://www.scarymommy.com/ignoring-your-facebook-posts/">the awareness that we all seem to have about the inauthentic presentations</a> of people’s lives that we consume online (and the painful comparisons that often follow) has also spawned subversively creative acts of satire. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/256467/original/file-20190130-110834-35nkss.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘It’s Like They Know Us’ posts stock photos with captions.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One example comes from “<a href="http://itsliketheyknowus.com/">It’s Like They Know Us</a>,” a blog/book/parenting subculture that’s built around taking stock images of families and providing captions that poke fun of the impossible standards these images perpetuate. And articles like the recent <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/worklife/a9619808/how-to-become-instagram-famous-experiment/">“How to Become Instagram Famous Experiment</a>” remind us all that behind the carefully cultivated images rests a series of failed attempts and sometimes ridiculous efforts to capture the perfect shot.</p>
<p>There’s a perverse kind of creativity that our image-saturated web presence has spawned. And as often as we fall into the destructive cycle of comparing our messy, authentic lives to the snapshots of perfection that we see online, we just as often step back and laugh at how silly it all is. </p>
<p>Perhaps we’re merely playing along; isn’t it fun to think, just for a moment, that somewhere out there, someone is really living their best life? And maybe, just maybe, if we arrange our books in an artful composition or capture a stunning selfie on the 10th attempt, maybe we will be able to see the beauty that exists in each of our imperfectly messy, chaotic, authentic realities beyond the picture. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s good for us to “act as if,” as long as we remember that the content we share and engage with online is only a fraction of our real stories. Remember, even fairy tales have a grain of truth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109216/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleftherios Soleas receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada as well as generous support from Queen's and its Faculty of Education.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jen McConnel receives funding from Queen's University, specifically the Faculty of Education. </span></em></p>Consuming too much social media when users end up comparing their lives to others more glamorous can leave one with bad feelings say researchers. But pretending or fantasizing is not all bad either.Eleftherios Soleas, PhD Candidate in Education, Queen's University, OntarioJen McConnel, PhD Student in Education, Queen's University, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1028002018-09-12T11:22:58Z2018-09-12T11:22:58ZTen things you should know about Instagram’s terms of use<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235974/original/file-20180912-133892-1qtr5w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/moscow-russia-august-24-2018-logo-1163611807?src=Q2Thr2wzB0fNPJsRygk31w-2-67">AlexandraPopova/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you use <a href="https://theconversation.com/instagram-influencers-when-a-special-relationship-with-fans-turns-dark-100543">Instagram</a>? Probably. Did you read the terms of use? Probably not. You’re not alone. Most people <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/eu-internal-market-subcommittee/online-platforms-and-the-eu-digital-single-market/written/26136.html">don’t read terms and conditions</a>. So here are some key things to know and understand about Instagram. </p>
<h2>1. The terms are confusing</h2>
<p>Users must agree to the terms of use before they can have an Instagram account. The minimum age to sign up is 13. But the reading age for the terms are closer to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44599968">university level</a>. They are written using complicated language. For example, the licence granted is described as “a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of”. </p>
<h2>2. You own your own photos, right?</h2>
<p>Instagram <a href="https://www.tumblr.com/privacy/consent?redirect=http%3A%2F%2Finstagram.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F38252135408%2Fthank-you-and-were-listening">claims</a> it does not take ownership of its users’ content. But the <a href="https://help.instagram.com/478745558852511">terms</a> state that the user grants Instagram a “non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use their content”. What this means is that Instagram has all the rights of the original owner of the content – aside from the fact that it is not an exclusive licence. It is important that photographers are aware of this because if they sell an image under an exclusive licence, posting the image on their Instagram would breach that licence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235977/original/file-20180912-133889-58jvmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many people upload pictures to their Instagram accounts without understanding the terms of use.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-fashion-couple-making-social-media-1175820406?src=fjFVYz37Fhc3mbjiASRHcg-1-0">Disobeyart/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Instagram can give away or sell your content</h2>
<p>Instagram can <a href="https://help.instagram.com/478745558852511">sub-licence</a> your content. This means that it could licence a user’s photograph or video to any third party, for free, without seeking permission, giving any notice or offering any payment to the user. It could also take a user’s content and let another company use that photo in exchange for a fee – which Instagram keeps. </p>
<h2>4. It can use your content for its own purposes</h2>
<p>Likewise, Instagram can make use of any user material for its own purposes or promotions without seeking permission, letting the user know or making any payments to the user. This also includes the ability to edit, modify, share, copy and communicate the content.</p>
<h2>5. Instagram can also give away these rights</h2>
<p>Not only can Instagram sub-licence, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform, display, translate, and create derivative works of user’s content, but it can also pass the rights to do these things onto a third party – without permission. It can do this because the terms state that the licence is transferable. This means that Instagram can freely assign or licence the rights to use its user’s content to another company or individual.</p>
<h2>6. It can do this anywhere</h2>
<p>Since there is no geographical restriction on the agreement, it could do any of the above things anywhere in the world.</p>
<h2>7. It’s a one-way street</h2>
<p>The terms state that the same rules do not apply to Instagram’s content, which they specify is protected by Intellectual Property and cannot be copied, modified, edited, published, used or licenced. This restrictive approach is particularly problematic for other app developers, such as those who create apps to work in conjunction with Instagram to perform additional functions, such as analysing followers, unfollowers and <a href="https://en.softonic.com/solutions/what-are-the-best-apps-to-get-followers-on-instagram?ex=at-1227.1&utm_expid=.cAB1G54JTM-nOklfyD6l6Q.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.it%2F">boosting likes</a>. </p>
<h2>8. Instagram makes money from ‘sharing’</h2>
<p>Instagram, which was launched in 2010 and bought by Facebook in 2012, reaches over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/657823/number-of-daily-active-instagram-users/">500m</a> daily active users who share approximately <a href="https://instagram-press.com/blog/2017/11/29/instagrams-2017-year-in-review/">80m</a> photos a day. It is a lucrative business and it is expected to make <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/content/emarketer-unveils-first-ever-worldwide-instagram-forecast">US$10.87 billion in 2019</a>. The company’s key revenue stream is advertising – essentially, the more people who use and share on Instagram, the more money they make. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"858274855258660864"}"></div></p>
<h2>9. You could be sued for copyright infringement</h2>
<p>Even though the culture of social media is all about sharing, technically posting a photo or video that isn’t your own, would be contrary to the Instagram terms and could be an infringement of copyright. In the terms, users agree that they either own all the content they post or have sought permission to use it. Otherwise, it could be construed as copyright infringement. For example, <a href="https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/21253198/Xposure_Photos_UK_Ltd_v_Khloe_Kardashian_et_al">Khloe Kardashian faced legal action</a> (which was <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5423741/Photo-agency-agrees-drop-suit-against-Khloe-Kardashian.html">later dropped</a>) after she posted a photograph of herself on her own Instagram which was owned by a photographic agency.</p>
<h2>10. Instagram should do better</h2>
<p>Instagram’s user agreement gives it unnecessarily broad rights over its users’ content. It encourages sharing – for the benefit of advertising revenues – but leave users vulnerable to copyright infringement claims. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600869.2018.1475897">In my own research I have argued</a> that Instagram should introduce an improved copyright policy that includes: </p>
<p>:: amending its user agreement so that it is clearer and fairer towards users and does not leave them vulnerable to copyright claims, or licence breaches. </p>
<p>:: adopting a “Notice and Takedown procedure” so users can request that infringing copies of their work are taken down by Instagram – similar to when content is blocked for copyright reasons on <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en&ref_topic=2778544">YouTube</a> to enable copyright holders to enforce their rights, rather than taking court action.</p>
<p>:: the company should introduce a copyright education tool to provide information and awareness about the law to its users and inform copyright holders when another user has screen-grabbed their image (while at the same issuing a copyright notice to the person who has taken the grab).</p>
<p>If Instagram does not take these steps, the company might find itself in a spot of trouble. Just this month, <a href="http://entreprises.claisse-associes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TGI-Paris-7-ao%C3%BBt-2018-UFC-Twitter.pdf">the Paris Court of First Instance</a> found that Twitter’s Terms of Use (not dissimilar to Instagram’s) were void and unenforceable because they were “abusive” towards users. Twitter, which could face fines of up to 30,000 Euros, will now have to remove the terms and replace them with ones which are compliant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102800/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hayleigh Bosher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s worth noting some key points about copyright and ownership before signing up to social media sites like Instagram.Hayleigh Bosher, Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008622018-08-27T23:14:11Z2018-08-27T23:14:11ZThe ruthless pursuit of online ‘likes’ gives you nothing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233317/original/file-20180823-149487-ci2sar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hannah Shaw (Kitten Lady), with Instagram influencer BriAnne Wills (@girlsandtheircats) at a marketing event in New York, Feb. 2018</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Loren Wohl for Fresh Step/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine a popular social media channel that did not display the number of “likes,” mentions, impressions, followers, engagements or any other metric to show how many times one’s content has been viewed, by whom and when.</p>
<p>A flourishing <a href="https://www.postplanner.com/get-more-likes-fans-facebook-page/">“how-to” industry has arisen</a> dedicated to increasing “counts” on social media, while also claiming this is the silver bullet to becoming more popular, rich and famous. </p>
<p>You can purchase the services of click-farms to artificially increase your like-counters. This potentially increases your content’s chances of being cross-syndicated, appearing higher up in newsfeeds and possibly meaning the ability to <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/small-business/convert-facebook-likes-and-social-media-fans-into-real-money/news-story/5df9046f830511be7d71923a117bee17">convert “online social wealth” into material wealth</a>. </p>
<p>In other cases, approbation markers such as likes can be used to generate popularity or condemnation of a group, politician or policy through the artful use of bots and astroturfing. For example, the work of the Russia-based Internet Research Agency has been implicated <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2018/02/what-we-know-about-the-internet-research-agency-and-how-it-meddled-in-the-2016-election.html">for swaying public opinion and altering the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election</a>. </p>
<p>The increasing concern over the spread of fake news and alleged political interference waged in sophisticated campaigns are examples that may come readily to mind, but the danger also includes the efforts of more local coordinated campaigns by political action groups to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/twitter-donald-trump-the-secret-twitter-rooms-of-trump-nation/">flood, troll and overwhelm the newsfeeds of popular social media using invite-only Twitter rooms</a>. </p>
<h2>‘Likes’ equals wins for market capitalism</h2>
<p>When social sharing buttons and counters were introduced on popular social media platforms over a decade ago, it could be said that it changed the character of social media. It also changed the motives for engaging with it. </p>
<p>Seeing numbers rise seems somewhat hardwired into us now, and provides incentive to contribute, and to contribute often, for the promise of this token digital reward. We spend long hours on these sites seeking to drive up numbers that are largely devoid of any context or direct transferable value. </p>
<p>Somehow we feel we will be magically validated for posting more of the extraordinary (and mundane) moments of our lives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233321/original/file-20180823-149475-dyfmzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting online ‘likes’ is a competition that may lead nowhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elijah O'Donell/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What is troubling is that this ruthless behaviour to get more likes seems to undermine the social aspect of social media. Instead of truly being social, we are making it more of a competitive endeavour to accumulate more likes. </p>
<p>Measuring the value of other human beings on the basis of how high their “score” is on social media seems less social, and more like <a href="https://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/books/10.16997/book16/">trying to “win” at social media in ways that resemble market capitalism</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, the main beneficiaries of our addictive and competitive behaviour are the social media companies who get more eyeballs on ads. </p>
<h2>Ruthless competition</h2>
<p>One can imagine the absurdity of the situation if we applied the idea of likes to our offline social interactions where we would engage in a strange kind of jockeying for social points among our friends and family. But competitive behaviour has a very long precedent in terms of accumulating wealth in any of its forms (material or otherwise). </p>
<p>As human beings, we do engage in competitive games in a social context. From board games, sports and online gaming. For those of us old enough to remember pinball machines at the arcade, there might have been a fleeting sense of satisfaction in earning the top score. But these were localized; today, with the ubiquity of social media and the proliferation of global leaderboards on multiplayer games, even the social succumbs to ruthless competition. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233314/original/file-20180823-149469-3wz98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social media is seen as a tool to connect communities and create relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The obsessive competitive drive in accumulating ever higher scores on social media via counters seems to deviate from all the extolled virtues of social media as a tool for connectivity, deepening relationships, transcending geographical barriers or organizing and mobilizing on the basis of speaking truth to power. </p>
<p>Although examples of these virtues are still evident on social media, we ought to call into question the value of these social metrics. Instead of a <a href="http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/4/3/3/4/7/p433474_index.html">global village, as Marshall McLuhan prophesied</a>, we are presented with a digital Potemkin village, a constructed sham, where sharing and being social is secondary to numerical proof of social interactions.</p>
<p>For younger generations who have grown up with web 2.0 social media, such status-chasing and social validation behaviours reduced to numerical outputs might be of concern. This model sets up situations for creating an easy tabulation of winners and losers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233319/original/file-20180823-149487-a7kd55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some social media influencers have been able to monetize their influence: Instagram influencer Kelly Eden and friend pose at the Kingdom Hearts III premiere on Friday, May 18, 2018, in Santa Monica, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Colin Young-Wolff for Square Inix/AP)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cue the more acute instances of self-esteem collapse, the pressure to sexualize the self in images to garner more attention and other risk-taking behaviours. The race to share also highlights widening class divisions as those without the means to go on lavish vacations or purchase and display luxury products are made to feel of lesser value. </p>
<p>In this way, we have found a convenient, visible, automated means of evaluating other humans. </p>
<h2>Status-chasing</h2>
<p>Before social media, a person of means may have wished to flaunt their “value” through conspicuous consumption, being seen driving an expensive vehicle, going about town in designer clothing and having their name appear in the society pages. Now, all who have online access can compete in these games of numerical value, and can receive near-instant gratification for their efforts. Social media counters have regrettably “democratized” status-chasing competition.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233322/original/file-20180823-149490-8ux5ud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Can we convert our likes to mortgage payments? Or a job?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Callie Morgan/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One might ask what exactly it is that we are accumulating, why and for what purpose? Some savvy social media users are able to leverage their enormous follower counts to become online celebrities and make a living (for a time). Yet, what of others who do not have such aspirations? </p>
<p>Do they consider their informative post on their poetic reflections on a warm spring day of lesser value if it does not garner a certain number of likes? Can we take our numbers of followers, retweets and likes to the bank as security on a mortgage? Can we convert likes into some form of currency? Before we say, “That is absurd!”, there are sites that actually do peg a dollar value on a like or tell us the monetary value of an account.</p>
<p>Is this a form of “video game” capitalism? Not quite, as there is no reliable way of converting like capital into, say, more equipment or software (fixed capital). It is, at bottom, primitive accumulation. It may not, in itself, be meaningful any more than — as the late economist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thorstein-Veblen">Thorstein Veblen</a> pointed out — buying silver rather than steel spoons. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=775&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233323/original/file-20180823-149478-1n1hkid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=974&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The need to demonstrate the luxury of your life puts undue pressure on our lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sebastien Gabriel / Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Let’s use an absurd example to illustrate the point. If I get 10,000 upvotes on a piece of content, what does that say about the content? Not much, at least any more than me saving kittens from a burning house will mean 10,000 people will hop on one foot for 76.4 seconds. There is simply not much substantial connection between the two events.</p>
<p>Pity instead those whose jobs require them to boost those metrics for a business, political party or political candidate. They have no choice but to employ tactics designed to increase apparent engagement. While those of us not under such conditions have the luxury of ignoring or turning up our noses at such pursuits, others may find this to be one of the key duties of their job. </p>
<p>Human beings will always find some means to evaluate and judge one another, be it in terms of wealth, education, power or ability. However, the steady conversion of social media into an eerie parallel of a market economy is concerning, perhaps drawing us further away from what may have been intended by users to be a truly open, global social space. </p>
<p>Perhaps it is of some benefit to recall <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=I6JIAAAAMAAJ&q=%22counted+counts%22&redir_esc=y#search_anchor">William Bruce Cameron’s pithy adage</a>: “not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100862/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kane X. Faucher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Although some social media users are able to monetize their social media “likes,” much of the pursuit of popularity amounts to nothing and instead turns us into pawns for political and commercial usesKane X. Faucher, Assistant Professor - Faculty of Information and Media Studies, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.