The Influencer Era
Everywhere I look there’s someone with a strongly held opinion. They are in the comment sections. They are on TV. On podcasts. And, of course, on social media platforms.
“Influencer” types, in particular, have taken over our discourse. They have massive online followings and a rolodex of opinions on just about every topic imaginable, from economy to politics and even science. Their opinions seem to form just about as quickly as it takes for them to learn of the latest hot topic du jour. The quicker they react, the more likes and impressions they will get. Who knows, if they are first and align their opinions just so, maybe even Elon Musk will repost them.
Watch a show like Piers Morgan and you’ll see a panel that has mostly influencers, and then the occasional subject matter expert, or two.
How did we get here? How is it that actual deep subject matter experts are elevates so much less than someone who has formed their surface opinion just 20 minutes ago?
I’m not being snooty about “experts” here, or gatekeeping. There are people who might not have PhDs, but nonetheless manage to have depth of knowledge. They read countless books, papers, or perhaps work in a related field. They’ve earned their opinions. But look around at the most prominent mouthpieces today and few are even remotely educated on the topics they are called to speak on.
And yet, their voices carry tremendous weight.
Why?
Perhaps it’s because they are more engaging or entertaining than traditional experts. Or maybe it’s because they feel more approachable and accessible to the average person, less removed from the everyday experiences of the public. Then again, could it be their tendency towards sensationalism and outrage that makes them so popular? Crowds do enjoy their bread and circus. Could it be their preference for oversimplification rather the complexity of nuance that tend to resonate with their followers? Or is it their ideological compliance and similarity to their audience…who are keen to know what they should next think and say to best fit in with their existing tribe.
Influencers excel at getting ahead of the newscycle because they can jump in and offer their opinions on any topic, without any qualification besides the number of followers they have accumulated. They don’t need to waste time on research, analysis, and data gathering. They just have to be first. And if they get something wrong, the news cycle will move on quickly. As long as they occasionally get something right. Really, it doesn’t even need to be right, as long as their flocks believes it to be right.
Influencer culture makes quick, sensationalized opinions seem more valuable than those that are researched, nuanced, and grounded in facts. A quick catchy post or a TikTok video with a compelling narrative can easily attract millions of views. We are used to that easy-to-digest format now, and nuanced, length, data-filled takes just don’t hold our attention much…if they even manage to grab it. There’s a blurred line between entertainment and truly informative takes.
But influencers aren’t the only ones falling into such traps. Our fast-paced environment and decreased ability to keep our attention on something has encourages us to also make up our minds too quickly, without fully exploring the issues, without investigating them, and—quite importantly—without pausing to really consider them. Sometimes it take not minutes, not hours, or even days to make up our minds, but weeks and months. Even years, on particularly complex topics. But we rush into conclusions. Our monkey brain has our rational one at gunpoint.
What we need is balance. We need to carefully evaluate whether someone has earned their place as a guide on a particular topic, or whether they jumped the line to get there. Where do their insights come from? Have they studied the topic? How well do they understand it? What suggests that their insight is worth following? What are they really saying and how much of what they’re saying is evidence-based?
We need to slow down and quiet our monkey brain. We need to push ourselves to do the hard work of studying a subject, of finding relevant experts vs convenient ones. We should rewards complexity and depth of knowledge more than surface-level insights that somehow align with our own biases.
We need to recognize that not everyone can be an expert on every subject. That some subjects take years and years to truly study and understand. Some scientists study a single molecule their entire life. How arrogant can we be to think that we can understand so many complex topics without the benefit of extensive experience and dedication to that specialized knowledge? True expertise is built over time.
Influencers have their place. Sometimes they have unique insights, or they can present information particularly well. Others are just entertaining, and that’s okay too. But we need to discern the difference between immediate knee-jerk reactions by lay people and thoughtful expertise. Not all topics require the same level of expertise, but all benefit from a ‘time out’ to reflect more deeply.
We must seek out those who not just speaking for the moment, but those whose words have weight in the future.
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Another thoughtful piece, Katherine. However, there's a key piece of the influencer picture which needs to be understood here. What is the central ingredient needed for someone to become an inluencer today?
They need to be physically attractive - a hyper-feminine woman or a macho man.
I could see this starting to really go into hyper-drive 15 years ago when I was an editor of conservative news and opinion sites. The route to become an influential commentator on the Right was always the same: become a regular talking head on Fox News. And who did the Fox producers mostly want? Very attractive people who look good on TV.
I saw how doomed the conservative movement was back when I made some appearances on PJTV, an early internet TV station which accompanied PJ Media, where I was an editor. After an appearance, I was talking with the lead executive producer. I was hoping that he could feature some of the incredible writers who I was editing. And his first question: are any of them pretty girls? That's how traffic was generated on internet videos at the time and how it still works today. It isn't important how thoughtful or expert one's ideas were. What mattered is how nice to look at the person speaking them was. But that didn't matter in the writing world. I wasn't publishing 20-something college students, I was publishing women and men who were mostly 40+ or even older. And they weren't the demographic that would succeed in TV, no matter how thoughtful their ideas were.
And now, 15 years later, that principle is just the way things are. Sexy women. Tough, macho men. They get the big platforms.
In the obesity space aka WELLNESS all the opinions are the same exact for mine. Therefore, no one follows me or listens. Since fatness is 75% of the population, this is a huge topic and one with great punning options too BUT no one will listen to the solution which should be obvious. Influencers in other areas still parrot aback the same "opinions" so no one should think that they influence anyone because what they say si what the population wants to hear.