Social media influencers

(Mains GS 4 : Human Values - Lessons from the Lives and Teachings of Great Leaders, Reformers and Administrators & Contributions of Moral Thinkers and Philosophers from India and World.)

Context:

• In this age of hustle culture, a breed of new-age professionals are on the rise called social media influencers.
• Most of these influencers are studying in college, dropped college, or passed college only to become an influencer thus what real ability they have to influence others remains a million-dollar question.

Make an impact:

• Earlier it was considered that to influence you have to first learn, then you have to implement, and then you might come in front of the public to present your opinion and experiences.
• We would have thought of influencers as mostly social activists, intellectuals, politicians, or change-makers in society.
• Not that those people ever claimed to make an influence on the ordinary but they had the natural ability in them to make an impact on others.

Lucrative choice:

• It doesn’t matter what influence you have as long as you have a bunch of followers who keep liking and commenting on your posts, and brands approach you to endorse products. 
• These days becoming a “public figure” is not that difficult as anyone can label themselves as a public figure on social media.
• It’s good to see the young generation flourish and prosper on their own but do they realise the goal should not be to influence others rather to specialise in a field should be the motto.
• Being an influencer could be a lucrative choice for many but if they are not educated enough, their influence on others might do more harm than good.

Striving to be famous:

• Martin Luther King said, “Not everyone can be famous but everyone can be great because greatness is determined by service. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”
• But with the help of social media, being famous seems far easier these days and everyone is striving to be famous, no one wants to be great.
• The amount of work you need to put in to become great is a tough ordeal especially for a generation that enjoys instant gratification.

Conclusion:

• We have to reflect seriously on the advice the real “influencers” of the past gave us or we will have a growing number of people meddling with our minds without doing any good to us or society in general.