What’s Up With The Influencers?

By Haripriya Karthikeyan

This topic is going to get a lot of hate. Maybe a lot of opinions. But I feel this topic is totally brushed off from the scene which is actually causing a very toxic environment for everyone. The culture of Influencers. This has been on the action for a very long time, but it has seen a boom very recently, thanks to social media and of course, lockdown.

Influencers are people who have a lot of knowledge and expertise on a specific topic and are ready to help others with the same. As simple as that. It is like, I’m not a doctor, but I have gone through the problem of acne, so I will tell you what I did to get rid of them. That’s the line. When you are within that line, it is all safe and helpful. Once you jump across the line, that’s where the problem starts. “I had acne, it’s so bad and gross, and thank god I don’t have it now, use this to get off it to have a flawless skin like mine”, is not cool. You get the point.

People are even promoting mental advice for others, without having an adequate amount of knowledge about it. Just because I can talk about something for hours doesn’t mean I have full knowledge about it. I can talk about love and romance by seeing movies and reading books, but not until I experience it myself, I can help someone who is having a problem in it.

But, how is someone talking 5-6 mins of a topic they don’t know completely, affects the public? People start to feel insecure about themselves. When you are constantly bombarded with something you think is perfect, people feel less confident about themselves, which is not cool. This was the major cause of colorism, where people thought being white was being perfect, as a consequence of which many industries bloomed.

Not everyone is perfect. There is nothing called perfectionism. Please stop giving any mental advice if you do not have any prior experience of it. Being happy is not the only emotion we have. Being positive is not the only acceptable attribute of a human being. It’s okay, to be sad. It's okay to be negative. Hearing the birds chirp in the morning may not give happiness to some people, and that’s okay. Going for a walk doesn’t ignite enthusiasm for some people and that’s okay. When you say all this will definitely give you peace and calm, you are putting these people to assume that maybe this is how it has to be. Which is totally not true.

I am not bashing every influencer here. I’ve known a lot of people who know what they are doing and are genuinely helping people out there. All I’m saying is, let’s not generalize things. There is no one formula for anything. If something makes you feel happy, doesn’t mean it should make the same for another individual. Let us celebrate differences and that is where we will find our uniqueness and the real happiness. Do what makes you happy, but do not expect others to find happiness in the same things that you found it in.

By Haripriya Karthikeyan