Identity and Online Advocacy

The lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram stimulates portrayals of identities by adjusting and adapting to fake ones.

Abstract 

The purpose of this paper is to shed light and explore the role of the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram and how they stimulate portrayals of identities. The nature of influencers is constantly evolving. In today’s world, they are more pronounced and becoming more popular. Some have grown from virtual obscurity to being nearly as famous as traditional icons in the world.  This paper, argues that, the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram stimulates and influence their audience towards the modification of their identities that is, their authentic self. The paper also stresses on the fact that people in the society should have this acceptance feeling, that is, showcasing their authentic self. Different articles which helped in building arguments will mainly address to the different aspects of the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram and how they impact on their audience. The paper proves that such influencers are even collaborating with different businesses in order to promote their products and service thereby, easily influencing their audience which later result to the altering of their identities. Another aspect which is taken into consideration is the setting up of beauty ideals by the fashion and lifestyle influencer community. 

Keywords:#Influencers,#Instagram, #Identity, #Modifiedidentities,#Bodyideals, #Influencermarketing, #Onlineadvocacy, #socialmedia 

Emerging technologies have revolutionized individual’s networks and this has influenced and compelled behaviors. Throughout the last decade, it has been noticed that social media platforms have been rapidly expanding in importance. According to Belanche et al. (2020), around 3.5 billion people make use of social media platforms which consist of 1 billion Instagram active users. As individuals in the society have shifted from traditional media and spend most of their time on social media platforms, influencers showed up. Torbarina et al. (2020), stated that influencers are the modern marketing tools for many brands. Social media influencers are people who have set up a name for their understanding and awareness on a particular matter. They usually create contents about specific matters on their accounts. This give rise to the number of their followers which are mainly those social media users who are engaged and pay attention to their contents. Instagram which was launched is 2010 is now considered among the most popular social media platforms with the most influencers (Venus and Aziz 2019). In addition to this, Tassi (2018), stated that it performs a key role under the attention economy from which appears this influencer community. However, the main focus of this paper is to show how the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram stimulates portrayals of identities by adjusting and adapting to fake ones. Their audience are easily influenced and this leads toward the modification of their authentic self. The paper will explore how those aspects are conveyed that is, how influencers mainly carry out their role for business intentions, doubting the reality behind their contents and they also tend to create an ideal representation of themselves thereby leading to the perturbation their follower’s identity and their authentic self. 

The promotion of brands and products by the lifestyle and fashion Influencer community

As stated earlier, influencers are the modern marketing tools for many brands on Instagram. Influencers mainly represent different brands on Instagram and this allows them to represent an active relationship with consumers. It facilitates the level of communication between the different contents posted and the followers. According to Audrezet et al. (2018), some marketers have acknowledged that influencers are trusted by their followers. The main role of influencers is to experiment the products or service and provide feedbacks through their Instagram account. This is mainly done by posting some tutorials, photos, their ‘opinions’ about a particular product or service thereby, always calling attention to what they are advertising. Venus and Aziz (2019), pointed out that, such actions demonstrate the whole idea of performing business tasks considering to the contents posted. Such actions are mainly executed for the purpose of being rewarded by the particular brand. However, this makes individuals doubt about the perception of truth in their actions, for example, whether they are executing such actions to educate and benefit their followers or whether for achieving self-benefits that is being recompensed. Such questions are mostly referred to the lifestyle and fashion influencer community which are among the most popular types of influencers. As a matter of fact, as stated by Izquierdo-Iranzo & Gallardo-Echenique (2020), some Instagram influencers have revealed that their authentic self differ completely from what they tend to showcase online, where there is the tendency of creating and embodying different identities so as to be able to portray themselves as being perfect in every single way and also in an approach of selling their image as well. Djafavora and Rushworth (2017), showed that many individuals in the society tend to accept and trust whatever is being posted and presented to them by their favourite influencers. Here, this can be referred to self-identification where the audience tries to identify themselves as their idols. However, they are more disposed to being persuaded in buying products only by seeing the contents posted by their preferred influencers without interrogating the authenticity of the act of the influencer. This tends to have a direct repercussion on their identitywhereby affecting their authentic self. 

Another example is beauty & wellness and fitness influencers which forms part mainly under the lifestyle influencer community. They generally advertise and recommend healthy products or services to their followers so as to stay healthy and in a good physical condition. What needs to be pointed up here is that, most influencers under the lifestyle influencer community are normal people who has been experiencing Instafame according to Jin et al. (2018).  It is also important to shed light on the fact that, some influencers may not be aware of an existing brand before that particular brand seeks to reach them out. They do not have any knowledge about what the particular brand is, whether their products or services are worth, but they will accept to collaborate with them in the sense of promoting their products or services thereby in return being recompensed. What can be concluded here is that so as to be accepted and communicate the message for the brand clearly to their followers, influences tend to adjust and modify their own identity which later makes their audience thinks that they are living a better life and that they have achieve a higher standard in the society followed by the help of the particular products they are promoting. The identities of those influencers are formed through the interactions with the brands and is mostly known as the postmarxist model of identity. This is however, a deceiving behavior from the influencers. This is so, as they are misinforming their audience who for instance, believed in their ability. Some individuals might support them by buying the products that has been presented to them by their preferred influencer, because they set out high expectations to it as someone who they usually trust promoted the particular product or service. However, when taking into account the fact that individuals in the society believe to the different contents posted by those particular influencers and are certainly influenced by what they undertake, it is essential to highlight that the influencer community on Instagram more precisely lifestyles and fashion ones directly impacts on their audience identity that is their authentic self. Again, this is also linked to the concept of Postmarxist perspective, where the identities of the audience are formed through their interactions with those influencers. This can be also explain how those individuals tend to interact with the posts of influencers. Such contents posted by the influencer directly influence their viewers.

The creation of beauty ideals by the fashion and lifestyle Influencer community

The lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram generally set beauty ideals. However, this tend to have negative repercussions in peoples’ identity, which influence them to their authentic self. In addition to this, there is the western civilization ideal of beauty. It is a particular representation of being the meaning of what it looks like to be beautiful. According to Forbes et al. (2007), it is mainly recognised by being light-skinned, sleek hair, slim or even the body shape and as a matter of fact, nowadays most influencers shares the same characteristics. They still maintain this ideal of beauty standard and display it to their audience on their Instagram account. Boerman (2020), stated that teenage girls and women are mostly concern regarding this issue that is being easily influenced by the definition of the beauty ideals. This does not mean that men are not influenced, but only a few compared to women and teenage girls. As per Nur Syuhada and Musa (2017), when noticing that they are completely different and do not meet the norms of the ideal beauty when compared to their Instagram idols, they are directly affected. This result to self-esteem issues, depression, weight gain or loss and also feeling frustrated. However, before getting through the stages of mental breakdowns that is self-esteem issues or depression, the followers often undertake and accept changes so as to modify their identity. Such acts can be related to the ‘performing the self’ concept. They act in a way which influences how a particular audience sees themselves, usually with the intent to create, present and maintain a favourable image in social situation for a particular purpose (Goffman 1959). They go ahead by attempting everything possible to create and modify their identity by changing their authentic self, their physical appearance in order to fit in this ideal of beauty. As they are about to look for a new sense of self identity, a lot of ideas and influences will be approached from the flood of contents available on several platforms mainly Instagram(Langner 2013). Throughout this process, they are directly transforming their identity without thinking of the consequences that this might bring to their offline identity and community too. A simple example would be the use of several applications for editing their photos before posting them on their page. Such applications help them to hide some imperfections by providing its users with different features such as filters, lightning effects and many more. However, how those individuals distinguish themselves and choose to distinguish themselves on Instagram are seriously impacted by the identity cues they are influenced by. This is mainly the representation of identities in commodified contexts. 

Another example would be the promotion of plastic surgeries on such platform.  While referencing to plastic surgery and Instagram, one of the most popular influencers that comes to mind and catch our attention is Kylie Jenner. Having 224 million of followers on Instagram, Kylie Jenner alongside her sister Kim, are well known for the promotion of plastic surgery. Having done breast implants, hips, lip injection etc., they considered it to be a lifestyle for them. Monteverde (2016), stated that within their family, such actions are considered to be normal and that supporting the idea that someone’s appearance needs to be improved for them to be accepted. This affects people’s identity in the community even if for them it is something which seems to be normal. They considered it to be important to change some of their facets so as to have a better appearance on the media. This might easily influence the self-identification of their fans. In addition to this, one concept that can be linked to such situation is the objectification and hyper sexualization. The idea here is that, in order to gain awareness online, they must objectify themselves and showing off sexy photos as claimed by Drenten et al. (2020). This however, makes their audience believe that it is the only way to become popular and succeed in gaining attention. In other words, it can also be said that they are encouraging people towards the modification of their identity. As Goffman (1959) stated, those influencers usually carry out identity performance through their influential behaviour on their audience. Some followers will be definitely influenced and will tend to follow their favourite influencers. An important note to take into consideration is that the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram has accompanied their audience to modify their identities in relation to the concepts of self-identification and the postmarxist perspective as explained earlier. 

On the whole, it has been argued that the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram have some pessimistic effects upon their audience. The idea of the collaboration between brands and influencers was persuading their audience as the main aim there was to only market their particular products and services. Afterwards, it was important to shed light on the aspect of beauty ideals which has pushed many people in the society to adjust and modify their identities that is their authentic self, so as to portray another image of them. Moreover, recommendations would be mainly targeted to the lifestyle and fashion Instagram influencer community. For example, influencers under such community should enlightened and notice their audience about their collaboration with different brands, that is in other words, they are promoting some particular products or services for the brand in question. This simple explanation would help their audience that is their followers to become fully aware that such contents posted are personal and that there is no other action than business purposes within the contents posted. However, taking advantage of the influencer marketing strategy is a good idea for brands but it is also important for them to maintain their authentic self. Furthermore, while there are only a few influencers who discourage beauty ideals, it would be much better if more and more influencers could join them by encouraging body acceptance and boost the self-confidence of their followers. They should also encourage their audience to keep their authentic self thereby having a positive influence on their self-identification. This will result to the empowerment of their followers and thus discouraging the creation and modification of identities. Despite that this issue is still omnipresent in the society where more people are being influenced by the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram, it is important for those influencers to take online advocacy into consideration and this will help them to reinforce their authentic persona.

Reference list

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Audrezet, A., Kerviler, G., Guidry Moulard, J. (2018). Authenticity under threat: When social media influencers need to go beyond self-presentation. Journal of business research.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.07.008

Belanche, D., Flavián, M., & Ibáñez-Sánchez, S. (2020). Followers’ reactions to influencers’ instagram posts. Spanish Journal of Marketing, 24(1), 37-54. doi:http://dx.doi.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1108/SJME-11-2019-0100

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31 thoughts on “The lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram stimulates portrayals of identities by adjusting and adapting to fake ones.

  1. Hi Yovan,

    Thanks for commenting on my paper. I really enjoyed reading yours as it had a similar theme to it.

    I definitely agree that the lifestyle and fashion influencer community on Instagram has set standards and ideas of beauty – long hair, thin waist with slight curves. These Western standards are a particular representation of being the meaning of what it looks like to be beautiful. A huge majority of fashion/beauty/lifestyle influencers have had this appearance since 2013/2015. In the past 2 years across social media, there has been a huge change and it is now ‘popular’ to accept flaws and embrace individualism. Especially due to the current pandemic as there are less images of influencers being dressed up and more ‘raw’ images about realism and embracing imperfections.

    I believe this is because we have all been forced to slow down and think about what ‘really’ matters and across social media, what really matters is about ‘self acceptance’. I think this has definitely been a positive change that has been long overdue.

    Do you agree with this? Who is to say there wont be another trend or social change that may revert social media back to being about unrealistic standards of beauty? Therefore, it is extremely important to be selective and be aware of who we choose to follow and take inspiration from.

    1. Hi Celine,

      Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my paper.
      Regarding to your question, I agree with your opinion where you mentioned that “we have all been forced to slow down and think about what ‘really’ matters and across social media, what really matters is about ‘self acceptance’”. In fact, this can be noted as a positive change that has been long overdue.

      Self-acceptance in the context of those influencers goes beyond tolerating the way they see themselves in front of their audience. It is accepting their behaviour, attitude and lifestyle, acknowledging them and working towards making a desired change. It includes accepting their body, protecting themselves against criticism and believing in their capabilities. Practicing self-acceptance helps them to realise their qualities, both bad and good, and eases feelings of guilt and unhappiness. When they begin to accept their authentic-self that is, who they ‘really’ are, they set themselves up for improvement. However, this has been noted among the Instagram influencer community even though it is minor in terms of the number of influencers who have been able to adapt to this change.

      As you have clearly stated it, following the rights influencers/person on such platforms is a key point to consider.

  2. Hello Yovan,
    I hope you are doing fine!
    First of all, your paper was well structured and you made an excellent analysis of your topic, so good point on that!

    I do agree with you that influencers are used as modern marketing tools to promote brands. But do you think in some way, these brands are exploiting the influencers?
    Pertaining to authentic self, do you believe that influencers always perform an authentic identity or they actually want to show their followers their true self?
    Secondly you mentioned about the creation of beauty ideals and plastic surgery, I would like to know your personal opinion on plastic surgery!

    Overall, I would like to thank you for this amazing paper! Good job!!
    Awaiting for your response

    Take care!

    1. Hello Lakshana !

      Thanks you for taking your time to go through my paper.

      So, regarding to your questions, influencer marketing is growing alongside the increased popularity of social media platforms and is becoming an important aspect for many companies’ digital marketing strategies. Their large followings would hopefully draw consumers to new products and create a successful campaign for the company. Personally, I will not say that those brands or companies are exploiting their chosen influencers, but I think that, choosing the right influencers that is those performing their authentic self, will get the job done. However, choosing the right influencer for certain campaigns can prove to be a tough challenge for many brands.

      As a matter of fact, it’s not always the case where influencers have been using or were satisfied with the products or services they endorse on social media platforms. While many brands do not seem to care if an endorsement comes from a place of true authenticity which is hard to be measured, should audiences be able to interpret influencer endorsements as inauthentic or misleading, both the brand and influencer lose credibility. According to Luoma-aho et al. (2019), 47% of customers are tired of influencer’s content that appears inauthentic and 62% of customers believe that influencer endorsements take advantage of impressionable audiences.

      However, the best practice would be to collaborate with influencers who have used and liked their particular product or service before even entering an endorsement deal, but at the very least, marketers should make sure they associates themselves with influencers who have authentic connections to their brand. For example, a beauty brand should probably find an influencer who people look to for beauty advice. Makes sense, right?
      It is also crucial that marketers give influencers autonomy in recreating the copy and images/video for sponsored content. While marketers may be inclined to tighten the leash, influencers know their audience way better.

      Furthermore, concerning to your second question, Cosmetic surgery is increasingly common, and the way it is showcased nowadays on social media platforms has raised concerns. Social media platforms are having one of the strongest influencers on body image. In addition to this, it is great that there are many influencers who are going through such phases in their personal life, that is undergoing such surgeries, but they should keep it personal and not showcase it online whereby, influencing their particular audience. As stated by Mowat et al. (2015), users of such platforms have the tendency to compare themselves to others and that these comparisons can either impacts on their identity as well as their perception and attitudes towards cosmetic surgery.

      Thank you for your comment Lakshana, I hope that I answered to your questions!

      REFERENCES :
      Luoma-aho, V., Pirttimäki, T., Maity, D., Munnukka, J., & Reinikainen, H. (2019). Primed
      authenticity: How priming impacts authenticity perception of social media influencers. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 13(4), 352-365. doi:http://dx.doi.org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1080/1553118X.2019.1617716

      Mowat, H., McDonald, K., Amy, S. D., Fisher, J., & Kirkman, M. (2015). The contribution
      of online content to the promotion and normalisation of female genital cosmetic surgery: A systematic review of the literature. BMC Women’s Health, 15 Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/scholarly-journals/contribution-online-content-promotion/docview/1779685800/se-2?accountid=10382

  3. Hi Yovan,

    What an interesting paper! I really enjoyed your paper since it is tackling a very interesting topic and is very informative. It is important that do not idealize those influence and that we understand the negative effects that they may have on their audiences’ both online and offline identity. You have been able to back up your arguments with scholarly articles which makes your paper very informative. Your topic is one that should be in light since it is something that is super relevant to our modern society.
    Overall you did a great job! Well Done!

    Camille

    1. Hello Camille,

      Thank you for this positive comment. As you mentioned, it is very important for us to recognise the negative impacts that those influencers might have on our identity as well as on our perceptions and attitudes towards different aspects. I am glad to see that you share the same perspective as mine, where you highlighted that this topic is super relevant to our modern society.

  4. Hi Yovan,

    Lifestyle and fashion influencer losing real identity and adapting to fake ones as you’ve said to promote the brands they are promoting by their online presence on Instagram.
    What i also appreciate about your paper is the fact that with some strong arguments you sustain the influencers as for example some of them are collaborating with different business as you said to promote their strength and build up their curriculum maybe for the future with highly standard brands.
    What you are trying to explain in the second paragraph of promotion of brands is the fact that influencers are promoting the brands and images of their products at the risks of losing their personal identity only for some monetary reward?
    Furthermore, in your conclusion you’ve mentioned an alternative in a way to preserve their personal identity as to inform the audience that some posts may be posted for personal inquiries and vice versa.

    I really enjoyed reading your paper as it is open to new ways and practice to help influencers to maintain their identity and expect no cancel culture.

    1. Hello Yohann,

      Glad you read and comment on my paper.
      Regarding to your question, some influencers may not be aware of an existing brand before that particular brand seeks to reach them out. They do not have any knowledge about what the particular brand is, whether their products or services are worth, but they will accept to collaborate with them in the sense of promoting their products or services thereby in return being recompensed.

      What can be concluded here is that so as to be accepted and communicate the message for the brand clearly to their followers, influences tend to adjust and modify their own identity which later makes their audience thinks that they are living a better life and that they have achieve a higher standard in the society followed by the help of the particular products they are promoting. The identities of those influencers are formed through the interactions with the brands and is mostly known as the postmarxist model of identity.

  5. Fantastic paper Yovan! I loved this topic and wrote a paper on the fashion community on Instagram too! I loved you mentioning of postmarxist ideals and the performing of self concept, those were both concepts I wish I could’ve explored more in my paper if I wasn’t limited by word limits. I think understanding the identity of influencers and how it is formed is extremely interesting, as a lot of influencers don’t begin as famous figures and what it means to be a celebrity now is vastly different to that 5 to 10 years ago. I think looking into the altering of identity over time and over the increase of following and social capital is something that while is talked about, isn’t looked into as deeply yet. Many influencers (especially in the fashion community) started off as enthusiasts who gained followings as independent figures who offered more relatable perspectives on particular hobbies and interests. Many fashion influencers weren’t initially attending fashion shows, or were even wearing designer clothes, their unique trait was being relatable and so just as you mentioned, their decisions to alter their identity has many unrealised affects on followers, especially those who had followed for long enough to see the change happen more significantly.

    Although, my paper was more focused on fashion influencers relationships with fast fashion, it did however, look at the identity formation and altering of identity to fit brands that they were promoting. Showing how influencers began as normal people but as they gained more social capital it became easier to abandon previous ideals and values for continued relevance, I hope you have the time to check my paper out! https://networkconference.netstudies.org/2021/2021/04/27/instagram-influencers-and-their-complicated-relationship-with-fast-fashion-james-von-kelaita/?fbclid=IwAR1c2njVE8hqpS5hwAZq2l-9w6pAA5th8JBzcYLDvPKsJ2iBSI-d9zx3ctk

  6. Hey Yovan,

    I really enjoyed your essay and totally agree with the points you’ve made! It’s really sad how nowadays users of social media are so dependent on the influencers they follow and how self-conscious they become because of it. A lot of influencers portray their ‘ideal self’ in a way that has ultimately become ‘toxic’ for those who follow them as the pressure to look a certain way becomes too much. However, I believe I have come across Influencers who do portray their authentic self, or at least, they do their best and try to have no filter when posting photos or when showing their followers their lifestyle. I think this is significantly important as this limits the toll taken on their mental health as it takes the pressure off these followers and allows them to be confident and embrace who they are and the imperfections they think they have as ‘perfect’ has no longer become the standard or the norm.

    I think you put across these points well in your paper!

    1. Hi Saranya !

      Thank you for reading my paper and I am glad you liked it.
      Indeed, it can be noted that many users of such platforms are so dependent on the influencers they follow. I agree with the fact that there are still some influencers who are trying their best to portray their authentic self. My aim however, was to shed light and explore the roles of those who are stimulating their identities.

      Social media platforms has an immediate impact on our perceived reality. For example, consciously and subconsciously, we consume messages through ads that reinforces or conflicts with our beliefs. Sometimes, these depictions of reality can harm our self-perception.

      Social media platforms like Instagram for instance provides a wealth of information and communication that we can use as a guide for social comparison and to find others who share our collective identity. However, too much information and exposure can make us question aspects of our identity. Exposure to such social media platforms in any form is just as influential in shaping our identity. As you clearly mentioned, this can even impact on the mental health on those people.

  7. As someone who does not follow many influencers on instagram for these particularly reasons, I can only agree with this brilliantly written paper. Most of the influencers that I’ve come across have unfortunately fit what has been described in this paper, only creating and showing an ideal self to their followers.

    So many teenagers are interacting with social media platforms from an early age and they are bombarded with these unrealistic beauty standards and marketing strategies from influencers they think are genuine. Growing up they think that they need to buy these products and fit a certain beauty standard to be considered successful or even beautiful.

    Not all influencers are like this, some are genuine and influence positively the lives of their followers. As mentioned in the paper, authenticity should be more encouraged and promoted on social medias by these so-called influencers.

    Great paper which has successfully called out the problem of influencers on social medias.

    1. Hello Emmy !

      Thank you for your time and your appreciation towards my paper.

      You definitely made a point here by stating that there are many teenagers who are interacting with social media platforms from an early age and that they are deluged with the unrealistic beauty standards and marketing strategies from influencers. This will definitely have impacts on their identities.

      I agree that not all influencers are the same, but for those who are not portraying their authentic self, they should be encouraged to do so.

  8. Absolutely spon on my man!
    You said it all yourself,influencers have good and sadly bad influences as well.
    Great article Yovan,
    Keep up the good work ❤️

    1. Hello Klins !

      Thank you for your comment and I hope that my paper helped you in shaping your views towards the Instagram influencer community.

  9. Hi Yo!
    Very interesting topic actually. The word influencer itself does it define its meaning? Regardless in my opinion it is quite bias. Social media influencers should test and be aware of the product and services they are paid sponsored for. But does they really test the products or services first ? In this modern era with the emergence of new technologies and new ways of communicating information that is social media has a big impact on every individual’s life. They do have their pros and cons surely like you’ve mentioned in your paper. Some of them may positively influenced others whereas some audiences may face body shaming or negative repercussions in one self identity. People are spending lots of money in buying beauty, health and weight loss products in order to look the same and not to be bully in the society. I think influencer should promote more self love, positive thinking and good thoughts. Anybody can now become an influencer in their own way. Influencers are having a major impact on the society. But surely it’s a complex and controversial statement. Do they really empower their audience?
    I know many people who saw influencers using a particular product and services and was in vain regretful. For some it’s a lifestyle for some it’s just a curse!

    1. Hi Yajna !

      Thank you for reading and commenting on my paper. Regarding to your question “The word influencer itself does it define its meaning?” I definitely agree and shares the same point of view based on this question.

      Influencer marketing is growing alongside the increased popularity of social media platforms and is becoming an important aspect for many companies’ digital marketing strategies. Their large followings would hopefully draw consumers to new products and create a successful campaign for the company.

      This is not always the case where influencers have been using or were satisfied with the products or services they endorse on social media platforms. While many brands do not seem to care if an endorsement comes from a place of true authenticity which is hard to be measured, should audiences be able to interpret influencer endorsements as inauthentic or misleading, both the brand and influencer lose credibility. According to Luoma-aho et al. (2019), 47% of customers are tired of influencer’s content that appears inauthentic and 62% of customers believe that influencer endorsements take advantage of impressionable audiences.

      However, the best practice would be to collaborate with influencers who have used and liked their particular product or service before even entering an endorsement deal, but at the very least, marketers should make sure they associates themselves with influencers who have authentic connections to their brand.

  10. Hey Yovan,
    I found your work really interesting.
    The way you tackled the different issues concerning influencers nowadays was pin point to the topic and really relevant. From promoting brands to creating beauty ideals, everything is there. You managed to approach the topic with wonderful knowledge.

    Times have changed and the ‘way of living’ has shifted to this ‘new lifestyle’ where people are concerned with ‘beauty’ and you quite pointed that out really well I must say.
    In the same line of thought, social media gave influencers a platform to express themselves to the whole world by means of a single ‘post’.
    Once again times have changed and the concern is real. Some influencers might be totally different from the majority but still, change is the main topic and is food for thought. Whether there will be this ‘change’ sooner or later, only time will tell; but for now it is what it is.

    I had a great time reading everything and you did a great job there.
    I really liked your paper…keep it up.

    1. Hey Vilash,
      I am glad you read my paper and thank you for your feedbacks.
      Indeed, times have changed and social media influencers have evolved over generations. It is very important for us, who’s acting as an audience on such platforms to take those concerns into consideration.

  11. Hello Yovan,

    I have gone through your paper and noticed that you have really well decrypted the real influencer community. My issue is that these influencers are mostly ‘ambassadors’ for brands that they represent. It is obvious that the brand would want to reach out maximum sales, but on the other hand, the influencer is getting a high number of reach, thus it is a win win situation. Everything nowadays on social media, mostly Instagram is about the ‘number of followers’. More followers means more famous. More followers means more sales.
    Influencers nowadays tend to promote themselves more than the product they are actually influencing people to consume/ buy. But are they authentic? Will he/she be the same outside social media?

    Influencers should really INFLUENCE people.
    Give a motivational talk following your life’s hard times.
    Analyse situations of people in difficulty and see how to help.
    Influence people to be better human beings.
    Influence people to stop pollution.

    Don’t influence for sales and personal image.

    Else your paper was a very nice read with some really great arguments.
    Keep it up.

    1. Hi Toshan,

      Thank you for taking the time to read my paper. I am glad that you liked it and thank you for your feedbacks.

      You made a good point where you mentioned that those influencers are ambassadors for the brands and that it is obvious that the brand would want to reach out maximum sales.

      However, the best practice for brands would be to collaborate with influencers who have used and liked their particular product or service before even entering an endorsement deal, but at the very least, marketers should make sure they associates themselves with influencers who have authentic connections to their brand. For example, a sports brand should probably find an influencer who people look for sports advice. Makes sense, right?
      It is also crucial that marketers give influencers autonomy in recreating the copy and images/video for sponsored content. While marketers may be inclined to tighten the leash, influencers know their audience way better.

      Another great point that you mentioned is that, influencers should not influence for sales and personal image. This would be great if most influencers would act in such ways, where they showcase their authentic self and influence their audience in a positive way.

  12. Hi Yovan!
    Your paper is very impressive and I like how you were clever while tackling your arguments.

    However, in my opinion, I think there are also some influencers who are genuine to their fans and followers and who have established credibility in the industry. Influencers are viewed as experts and are really good with their words while creating contents according to their audience. Many influences have genuine positivity on their followers.

    On the other side, there are also a lot of “influencers” who are unskilled and attract a huge amount of followers on Instagram based on their looks. Many of them are only posting bikini or revealing clothing of a certain brand and gain thousands of dollars per post. Do you think the ones you’ve talked about in your paper relates to these ones?
    I’d love to hear more from you on this topic based on my approach. Great going!

    1. Hello Noodish,

      Thank you for taking the time to read my paper and for your feedbacks.
      I agree with your opinion that there are still some influencers who are genuine to their fans. It is true that many influencers have genuine positivity on their followers. One particular example is mainly those influencers promoting body positivity. They are actually a role model on such platforms by making their audiences’ aware that accepting their body and maintaining a positive attitude towards it is vital. This also tend to motivate and influence their audience’s identity in a positive way. Their perceptions and attitudes towards accepting their body are positively influenced.

      Regarding to your question, the one’s I have pointed out in my paper definitely relates to the one’s who have mentioned. With regards to those followers for example, they should work with brands that projects authenticity, where it is related to being genuine and original. However, it be will easier for such influencers to settle their authentic personal and this will contribute in the projection of their authentic self to their audience. It is also important to brands and marketers also to choose the right influencers.

  13. Hi Yovan!
    Wow! So many great points to consider.
    I do not follow many influencers on social media but the one’s I do, come across quite genuine. One, in fact, has the worst ‘potty mouth’ out there and openly tells her audience to ‘go away’ (expletive’s) if they don’t like what she has to say! The other influencer that I follow however, has influenced me in ways you have mentioned above without me even being aware of it.
    This particular influencer fits your ‘western ideals’ of beauty. Tussled blonde hair, slim, beautiful, and… not afraid to post those ‘sexy’ shots of herself. She has admitted to me that most of her 167K following are men, and she knows ‘sex sells’. I do wonder now though, whether this is the real her…
    Nevertheless, I feel connected to her. We are of the same age (pushing the big 40) and enjoy similar outdoor hobbies. Lately, I have found myself wanting to be more like her. I want dreadlocks in my hair (partly), I’ve been working out harder at the gym and I’ve been dabbling in slim-fit clothing. Is this all a bad thing?
    On the other hand, my 14yo daughter follows many influencers and their word is gospel to her. When I tell her to not believe everything you read/see of social media, she is never truly convinced I know better than they do in such things. The influence of influencers is real for our young people.
    I think this is an area that needs to be explored more fully in regards to mental health and wellbeing, particularly for our youth.
    Very insightful Yovan. Thank you.

    1. Hello Vanessa !

      Thank you for taking your time to read and comment on my paper.
      It’s great to see someone voicing out about her personal experience and thank you for that! The fact that you wanted to be like her, here means that she has influenced you. I cannot conclude on this situation by saying that this a bad thing or she has negatively impacted on your identity. Besides this, regarding to your comment, it can be seen that she acted more in a positive way, whereby she pushed you to go to the gym etc…

      Furthermore, regarding to the situation of your daughter, it is true that nowadays, so many teenagers are interacting with social media platforms from an early age and they are bombarded with these unrealistic beauty standards and marketing strategies from influencers. Growing up, they think that they need to buy these products and fit a certain beauty standard to be considered successful or even beautiful. However, following the rights influencer/person on such platforms might be a solution to this particular problem.

  14. Hi Yovan!
    I really enjoyed your paper!
    Do you think there are any ways that an Influencer can truely be authentic to their audience? Purely with the fact in mind that whenever people post photos they have to think about the message they want to portray, even if it is one that is meant to empower their audience?
    I have written my paper on the negative effects that Instagram’s Fitspo Influencers can have on themselves and their followers. Do you think such a thing could also happen to the Influencers that you discuss? For example taking their performative identity and unconsciously making it their real-life one and feeling like they must always live up to the expectations that their online self has?

  15. Hello Yovan! I found your topic very interesting and I appreciate that you have explored and considered the negative impacts that those influencers have on their audience. I totally agree with your supportive arguments, they are clear and concise. I think that nowadays many users are not aware of the impacts that such influencers might have on their self identity. It was very important to highlight on this topic and I must say that you have produced a good work in writing this paper.

    Besides this, do you think that there are still some influencers who are doing a great job on their social media platforms?

    Well, overall your paper was very interesting with some major impacts discussed and I hope that in the future, we will be able to see more influencers showing their real identity.

    1. Hello Ashley !

      Thank you for reading my paper and your feedbacks.
      Indeed, such topic need to be explored and those negative impacts should be considered.

      Regarding to your question, there are still some influencers who are doing a great job on social media platforms. One particular example is mainly those influencers promoting body positivity. They are actually a role model on such platforms by making their audiences’ aware that accepting their body and maintaining a positive attitude towards it is vital. This also tend to motivate and influence their audience’s identity in a positive way. Their perceptions and attitudes towards accepting their body are positively influenced.

      Furthermore, Instagram influencers usually participates in online advocacy and this improves to consolidate their authentic persona as they advocate for good causes. Since influencers have their way of tackling different social issues, most of them usually take part in online movements and such acts to be highlighted.

      Thank you again Ashley, I hope that by reading this comment you will be able to get a better idea of those influencers who are doing a good job on their social media platforms.

  16. Hi Yovan ,

    I have read your paper and have found it so very informative. I completely agree with your statement on how influencer communities negatively affect online society, especially amongst women and teenage girls.
    You have really hit the nail on the head explaining how influencers have altered their authentic self to plug business deals and upholding beauty standards that Instagram has set.

    There are accounts on Instagram that call out influencers who have failed to disclose advertising and promotions of products posted on their account, leading to questioning their authentic opinion. Yet they still choose to ignore it, and it seems that influencers are content with having a minor backlash for a brief moment rather than owning up that their post was paid for by a brand. Influencers go against the grain and are happy to disclose promotions, and I found that a vast majority of their followers comment positive feedback because they were upfront about it. It makes you question why some influencers choose to hide it when others are upfront is still gaining supportive comments from their followers.

    Your example of Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian and their immense influence on their young followers on beauty standards — I’m unsure about your statement about plastic surgery where you state “… they considered it to be a lifestyle for them”, are you saying that they have promoted these procedures to their audience?
    In my experience with social media and following entertainment news, Kardashian and Jenner’s clan have vehemently denied any cosmetic procedures done to themselves other than allegedly having had a very few Botox and fillers done on their face but nowhere else. If they’re not denying it, they’re ignoring their followers and audiences who question it. Kylie Jenner did not admit to lip fillers for a very long time and claimed her fuller lips were due to make-up techniques and puberty. This gives their followers an ingenuine perception of beauty standards, especially young girls who see these images and find that they’re unattainable without the knowledge that even to these celebrities and influencers, is unrealistic for them too.

    Your paper was a fantastic read, I can go on and comment more on the issue 😊.

    1. Hello Hughes !

      Glad that you read my paper and thank you for your comment.
      Thank you for mentioning about the Instagram accounts that call out influencers who have failed to disclose advertising the promotion of products posted on their account. I will surely go and look for those accounts in question.

      Regarding to the question about Kylie Jenner and the promotion of her surgeries to her audience, we cannot see any content (picture/video) where she is promoting such act. However, what I wanted to point out here is that by showcasing such actions through her Instagram page, this can directly have an impact on its online audience. It is great that there are many influencers who are going through such phases in their personal life, that is undergoing such surgeries, but they should keep it personal and not showcase it online whereby, influencing their particular audience. As stated by Mowat et al. (2015), users of such platforms have the tendency to compare themselves to others and that these comparisons can either impacts on their identity as well as their perception and attitudes towards cosmetic surgery. They might be easily influenced by such acts and therefore tend to conduct the same acts.

      Check out these engaging articles :
      Monteverde, G. (2016). Kardashian komplicity: Performing post-feminist beauty. Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty, 7(2), 153-172. https://doi-org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/10.1386/csfb.7.2.153_

      Mowat, H., McDonald, K., Amy, S. D., Fisher, J., & Kirkman, M. (2015). The contribution
      of online content to the promotion and normalisation of female genital cosmetic surgery: A systematic review of the literature. BMC Women’s Health, 15 Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/scholarly-journals/contribution-online-content-promotion/docview/1779685800/se-2?accountid=10382

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