Introduction to OSP: Influencers

Read this article in The Week magazine on the rise of social media influencers and answer the following questions:

1) What years did YouTube, Twitter and Instagram launch?
Youtube: 2005

Twitter: 2006

Instagram: 2010

2) What is the definition of an influencer?
social media users – mostly women – with a large, devoted following, who give their followers access to a carefully curated version of their lives. 

3) Give an example of an influencer and how many followers they have. Try and add some additional information, brand associations, or other statistics if you can.

Kim Kardashian

• 364 million Instagram followers
• 9 million Tiktok followers
• 43 years old
• net worth: around $1.7billion
• Own show called: Keeping Up with the Kardashians

4) How big is the influencer industry according to the article?
Very big

5) What are the problems associated with being an influencer?
Hate, being cancelled, takes lots of time, no privacy

6) Why is it suggested that audiences actually like being sold products by influencers?
To make them look like the influencer and live a life like they do.

7) What representation of beauty is often found on Instagram or other influencer sites?
It is usually edited and fake. Some influencers promote natural beauty as well. 

8) What is YOUR opinion on influencers? Are they a positive or negative influence on our society and culture? Why?

They have both a positive and negative impact. 

Positive because it can help other people struggling with their appearance, body, and lifestyle to change and follow someone else who they can relate to.

Negative because a lot of the time when influencers post, they look perfect however this is all fake, and many people won't realise that it's fake and will struggle with their appearance and may feel insecure and wonder how those influencers have such perfect bodies even though they edited it using photoshop and face tune.