Under the Influence

One the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...a Zoella Advent calendar. On the second day of Christmas I took it back and complained. This isn't my story but its certainly going to be a few peoples experience this year, and calls to question if the top influencers on Youtube are really giving off the right influences.

Zoella, one of the top Youtube "superstars" has recently come under public scrutiny (again) after releasing an Advent calendar. In this case she feels a calendar with only 12 doors containing items described as poundland quality and slapping a whopping £50 price tag on it for her loyal fans is just good business. That's what it has boiled down to for her and many of the other celebrity Youtubers (many who are in relationships or related to each other too): business, lifestyle-funding or monetising as many influencers like to call it. Making money from a viable business model selling a well-made, well-aimed product at a price that reflects its real value is all well and good and many of these vloggers and Youtube stars do exactly that; some are seeming to let the money become more important than the people who made them famous. The calendar drew immediate criticism from consumers and other Youtube accounts (some of whom relish in calling people out on bad moves) voicing their disappointment that she treated her fans with such disregard.

Trouble is this isn't a one off, and she certainly isn't a bad person compared to a lot of online celebrities but it's still becoming the norm rather than the exception that fame is turning influencers greedy. Many stars are getting to prefer bank balances to subscription numbers and its started to get more and more obvious to everyone how little they really care about their viewers. You only need to look up the names of some of these stars on Google and it's obvious how much empathy they put on their merchandise and money making. Some people on Youtube are not happy with the situation and like to publicly call these influencers on sloppy content, greedy attitudes and a callous disregard for their paying fans. One YouTuber, Jaack Maate, regularly critiques some of these stars and the way they treat their fans and how YouTube cares more about financial returns than letting the right messages be passed on. He also seems to delight in the fact that most of the people he discusses either accuse him of jealously or simply block him from all their social media, what is it they say? The truth hurts! But ultimately it seems they only hurt themselves with their responses to these call outs. When Zoella decided to respond to the criticism of her calendar she chose not to apologise to her disappointed fans (many of whom are young teens) or take responsibility but blame the sales outlet for the pricing strategy and backtracked on her "control freak" and "only puts her name on products she's proud of" claim.

So where does the fault lie? Are Zoella and the other Youtube influencers corrupt and evil money grabbing villains; is YouTube the big bad that only values money over morals or is it the loyal, gullible and adoring fans that are causing the issue? Nope it's us! After all these influencers were once normal everyday people who just started uploading videos and we shoved them up on a pedestal. The fans were once regular people who one day came across the videos on Youtube and allowed them to become a guiding voice and well YouTube is just a social platform and they are all the same where it comes to financial vs responsibility – so yep it's us. When you allow people a voice it's up to them and us to police that voice, you only take forward what's inside. On YouTube and all social media you say the things you want with only limited policing and supervision from the platforms (after all that's a lot of content to watch) so it's down to us to decide what should and shouldn't be said. These people only rose to these positions as people boosted them there, so why be surprised when they treat people like a never ending bank roll. When we buy their products we justify them charging the amount they do. When people buy tickets to their meet and greets we encourage them to monetise their personal interactions. They stop being a person we listen to and become a brand we follow.

So why does it feel wrong when they turn towards the bank rather than the crowd? Is it because like an online Jimminy Cricket we want these influencers to be there to tell us how to feel or how to act and we let them in to become part of us? When we see them act in these immoral ways we fear it's a little voice inside our own heads and we don't like looking inside and seeing things that ugly. That's perhaps the irony of a beauty influencer: no makeup will cover that type of ugly look.