Abstract

Given the current state of the world and the way in which young teen get influenced, social media and influencer culture plays a big part in that. The impact of influencer culture on young teens is not just superficial but it dives deep into their social growth and the way they perceive the world. The actions and the ideologies of influencers is mimicked into the lives of young teens. This paper explores how this impact runs deep in the social growth of young teens.

Influencer culture is not only about the influencer on the digital screen, but the culture also runs itself deep within the industry, it’s about the role influencers have as being a part of the ‘internet celebrity’ framework, giving the rise in how it impacts the social growth of young teens. These influencers can walk to high levels of fame only when they are successful in bringing more eyeballs to all of the platforms that depend on high visibility, this type of celebrity is an outcome that could only be achieved when they attain “prominence and popularity native to the internet” (Abidin, 2021) on all media formats. Internet celebrity is achieved only when their content is being watched, received, and acknowledged by the audience despite what the content is trying to influence or how much popularity they can achieve when compared to their competition (Abidin, 2021).

Abidin (2021) defined Influencers as Internet users who accumulate a relatively large following on digital media platforms through the narration (be it textual or visual) of their personal lives and lifestyles and engage with their audience through “digital’ and “physical spaces”. Integrating “advertorials” through various forms on their digital media platform or make physical appearances at events helps them monetize the ‘content’ that they showcase on their digital and physical spaces. The role of influencers in adolescents’ lives does not limit itself to just being in the context of following social content but also in terms of relationship formation and consumption behaviours (Lou & Kim, 2019). While all of this could be blamed for the current way that the digital world and how captivating it is to the point where influencers are mode of information and comfort, one needs to be reminded that this stems from how digital communications and mobile media are an integral part of all our lives. Since birth, we have been exposed to digital media and our initial print in the vast network would be an ultrasound (Leaver,2015). This fact relates to how since media is not alien to young people, they fashion it in a way that suits them (Leaver,2015) and are in control of what is perceived online; just like how influencers start.

Influencers adjust their self-presentation and content to their audience by narrowing down their target audience and avoiding detection by those not, to promote deflection to an alternative crowd and facilitate the dissemination of messages. Influencer cultures have their own “ecology and economy”. As Abidin (2021) states “they are the epitome of internet celebrities for rabidly professionalizing in production standards, aesthetic ecologies and financial and socio-cultural capital”. Influencers are considered to be the opinion leaders for young internet users communicating with their audience through their digital strategies online across multiple ‘potentially- integrated digital’ spaces. Their position in society is usually at the intersection of relatability politics, attention gaming economies and self-branding culture (Abidin, 2021). “Indeed, 70% of adolescent YouTube users indicated that they treated YouTube influencers as peers and 60% YouTube users would follow influencers’ advice on what to purchase over that of TV or movie celebrities.” (Lou & Kim, 2019).

Not only do the ideologies get impacted, but so does the way influencers affect the Parasocial relationships, and the purchase intentions of the youth come into play when one indulges in influencer culture (Lou & Kim, 2019). Parasocial relationships between the consumer and the influencer or internet sensations are something that is built over time through influencers disclosing their personal lives and then interacting with the audience through refracted public spaces. This way the audience not only consumes what the influencers put forward on their digital spaces but also be able to get intimate with the content by commenting, liking, or sharing. It creates a friendship between the influencer and the audience, having a socio-economic relationship. The socioeconomic relationship is formed on the grounds of the union of informative value and entertainment value with the combination of literature on influencer content value. Aesthetics and relatability are also huge playing a factor in strengthening Parasocial relationships between the audience and the influencer. When relationships like this are strong and can be conceptualised; the credibility of influencers would be in question and how strong is the connection for influencers to influence the young audience; be it ideology, environmental, interpersonal relationships, political or materialistic. Abidin (2021) noticed that the current influencer industry consists of internet sensations as young as 15 years old and that this phenomenon of influencer culture is not limited in just the western context but globally. There is no single type of archetype of influencer or internet celebrity as it has evolved beyond what it used to be which would just be a few kids on the internet having followers. This would also tie in with the knowledge that the moral compass in the influencer culture and audience that consumes this entity would be affected, be it positively or negatively as it would be caused by consuming this, as an audience member or as an influencer, from a young age (Frontier, 2019). This affected their cognitive understanding and had an impact on their ability to question legal, ethical, and philosophical situations.

Understanding that the Influencer culture becoming more than just the ‘internet’ is crucial as it explains the way that governments and even NGOs would turn to influencers to put a message across to the public that promotes social and environmental ideologies (Frontier, 2019). Influencers have more of a hold on youngsters than authoritative figures do, including parents. It makes sense to the younger audience that someone close to their age and seemingly leading a lifestyle that they relate to or simply aspire to be is putting a message across, hence that message should be taken into consideration. For example, over the pandemic, the rise of Tik Tok stars was very prominent, especially at the start of the global lockdown. Stars like Addison Rae and Charlie D’Amelio became a household names and remain to be. Kids and teens during the pandemic were targeted through these Tik Tok stars to make them aware of COVID-1 and the importance of hygiene. Clips could appear of any of the stars simply dancing to a viral hit, but the caption would be something to do with COVID-19 protocol and usually, they would be partnered up with companies like Procter and Gamble to convey it to the public. These stars would then monetize their content and eventually, Tik Tok is a full-time job for them. Another example would be how the world noticed the prominence of digital platforms being on the rise and influencers from Russia and Ukraine using the digital space as a way of reaching out to the public in their way. Content creators or even the common man from Ukraine were seen to have viral Tik Tok videos showcasing the depth of the war that was waged upon them by Russia and the reality of living in Ukraine. These videos were then picked up and became viral globally which spread more awareness of the situation than it would have been if it was merely showcased through mainstream media like the News or Radio.

As we talk about online advocacy and refracted public spaces and the concepts in which the influencer culture exists in-it is important to understand that Generation Zs are the most prominent generation to be impacted through the digital and public spaces that influencers and social media have exposed them to. Yadav & Rai found that this generation would expect respect from all views however the modern organisation that is mostly in tune with the online spaces restricts them to do just that. Generation Zs would be the cause of many social changes currently and in the upcoming years and this is also one of the reasons why social media impacts them in my personal opinion. There is a difference in holding one accountable when it comes to previous generations and the environment that Generation Zs grew up in. This is also highly influenced by cancel culture but also the way that they grow faster compared to the previous generations. The desire to explore and indulge the virtual society exposes them to “identification, image formation, maintenance and boosting up” (Yadav & Rai, 2017) their social assets which play into how they tend to be inclined to represent themselves online as well as interact with influencers.In their study, Chen Lou, and Hye Kyung Kim (2019) found that the entertainment value of influencer-generated content and influencer credibility- especially attractiveness and similarity- are positively related to the Parasocial relationships between influencers and adolescent followers. This relationship would factor in not only how they view the world but also factor in how ‘trends’ are ways to broadcast awareness on situations and issues that would impact the way the youth assume the world at its current position (Yadav & Rai, 2017).

In conclusion,the impact of influencer culture sneaks its way through not just their social growth but also the workforce for the current generations and the use of social media by organizations that target the youth and their lifestyles. The outcomes of the decisions that organizations make and turn to influencers- are impacted by the effects of social media usage by the Gen Zs (Yadav & Raj, 2017). It is almost like a loop as the demand exists for the influencer culture to exist beyond entertainment and into the socio-economic aspects of Gen Zs’ world. Identification seems to be the key response to all these situations in which how and why the youth can be influenced deeply. Without identification and the need to fit a standard whether be it a standard, they set themselves or a standard that they see on social media- the need for influencer culture would not exist and be as powerful as it is in the last 10 years. Without realizing it, audiences need influencers just as much as influencers need their followers. The current generation becomes exposed and more aware of situations because of influencers and social media culture and not just mainstream media like news or the radio. Scrolling through their Instagram feed or Twitter thread allows them to indulge in the culture as if it were oxygen because it has become so accessible and normalized. The need to go out and learn social cues like other generations is simply gone because now influencers can ‘influence’ them into thinking there is a certain way they go about their life. This would also impact the career choices based on the perceptions they grow up with, getting into a field that was once not mainstream is slowly becoming a norm. Seeing influencers be determined about a political stance, be it genuine or fake, wouldn’t allow them to open up their mind to all the possibilities of the world but it would cloud it. They would not be able to socially grow as normal youth did from previous generations because of the restrictions on how the social media world indirectly controls their ideologies and takes away from the raw learning previous generations experienced. 

Reference List

(APA 7^th Ed)

Abidin, C. (2021). From “Networked publics” to “refracted publics”: A companion framework for researching “Below the radar” studies. Social Media + Society, 7(1), 205630512098445. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120984458  

Leaver, T. (2015). Researching the ends of identity: Birth and death on social media. Social Media + Society, 1(1), 205630511557887. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115578877  

Lou, C., & Kim, H. K. (2019). Fancying the new rich and famous? Explicating the roles of influencer content, credibility, and parental mediation in adolescents’ parasocial relationship, materialism, and purchase intentions. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02567  

Prakash Yadav, G., & Rai, J. (2017). The generation Z and their social media usage: A review and a research outline. Global Journal of Enterprise Information System, 9(2), 110. https://doi.org/10.18311/gjeis/2017/15748  

The role of social media influencers in the lives of children and adolescents. Frontiers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/9295/the-role-of-social-media-influencers-in-the-lives-of-children-and-adolescents  

Dabbiru_20076719_Online Conference Paper