May 22, 2023 3 min read

Of all the buzzwords created in this digital age, the one that annoys me most is “influencer.”

I hate the word because for most of my life, I’ve tried to avoid being influenced about what to think, say, believe or buy. Influencers fly in the face of this attempt.

According to the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), “A social media influencer is someone who has established credibility in a specific industry, has access to a huge audience and can persuade others to act based on their recommendations.” Examples of social media influencers abound. Here’s just one shortlist, again from DMI: Addison Rae; Huda Kattan/Huda Beauty; Khaby Lame; Kayla Itsines; Selena Gomez; Kylie Jenner; Cristiano Rinaldo; Zach King; and Nike – the clothing/footwear brand, not the Greek winged goddess of victory. Of these, I know only Jenner, Gomez and Nike. Follow if you like, but tread carefully: influencers can lead you to make questionable decisions.

For example, young women began having their lips plumped around 2015 after the aforementioned Jenner confessed she’d had her lips done. Within 24 hours inquiries about lip fillers rose 70%. I’m not a fan of this look, but I guess plumping is a valid alternative to being stung in the lips repeatedly by bees. Neither are men immune to influencers. According to the website Sharp, the global men’s skincare product market is expected to nearly double since 2012, to $230 billion, as men follow influencers for hairstyles, skin care and fashion choices. This probably is a good thing because it will save many young men from smelling like a wet saddle and looking as though they were shopping at a Goodwill resale shop when the men’s clothing rack exploded.

But what about men who feel insecure, overlooked, unloved? Well, they might visit the Snapchat site of Caryn Marjorie, another influencer who wants lonely, uptight men to talk to an AI chatbot version of herself called CarynAI, which Marjorie has dubbed “your virtual girlfriend.”

“CarynAI is the first step in the right direction to cure loneliness,” Marjorie tweeted on May 11. “Men are told to suppress their emotions, hide their masculinity and to not talk about issues they are having. I vow to fix this with CarynAI.” Marjorie charges users $1 per minute to chat with her AI self. She generated $71,610 in revenue from roughly 1,000 users after one week of beta testing. For the record, Marjorie also received death threats from those opposed to AI.

Influencers were around long before social media, of course. Queen Elizabeth I started a trend for English women by using a mixture of lead and vinegar to create white makeup to cover her smallpox scars. In America, Civil War general Ambrose Burnside created not only a trend but a new word when his choice of facial hair became “sideburns.” And when I was 16, the Beatles influenced the style of not only my hair and clothing but also my attitude. But now that I’m older, losing my hair, I’m not going to fall in line behind a media darling. Nor should you.

Let’s put it this way: If Adam – supposedly the father of us all – were around today, he’d probably be an influencer.

But I wouldn’t take his advice on apples.