Just like everything in this fast-paced world, social media has changed ‘how’ we interact with celebrities and ‘who’ we pose these celebrities to be. People are now ready for a revolution following a long haul of looking at these famous personalities from afar and fantasizing about them as a far-fetched dream. After multiple scandals and controversies, the masses are of the mind to honour real-life heroes, instead of idolising personalities whose life is only partially visible and that too is surrounded with unachievable glitz and glamour. People now look up to someone who comes from amongst them and is thus authentic and trustworthy.
With the onset of the pandemic, our lives have been revolving around the internet more than ever, giving rise to influencer culture. As we were locked in the four walls of our homes, creativity brewed and splurged through social media. Through the ‘click and share’ culture, many ordinary people rose to popularity as their content went viral for being informative on literally any subject under the sun or for simply being entertaining. These people were admired by their followers to the extent that they could ‘influence’ what their followers consume, giving rise to the ‘influencer culture’. This is because, for the netizens, it is easier to interact, resonate and rely on the choices of people who seem more ‘real’ than famous celebrities who have a dreamy lifestyle and are heavily paid to advertise a product or service that they probably never use. This makes influencers more credible as they come from similar economic backgrounds and give honest reviews about the products that they actually use and claim are worthy.
Instagram has primarily shaped this culture by quickly replacing the banned tik-tok with what is called reels. These 15-second videos were dynamic and practical to hold the attention of this otherwise attention-deficit internet generation while spreading knowledge/entertainment comprehensively. The quintessence of this entire process was the algorithm of Instagram which was random and thus provided an opportunity to every individual to amplify their content.
With the boom of regular people on the internet, brands have now started collaborating with these influencers. These digital content creators with a following large post sponsored material along with their hallmark content strike a balance between maintaining impact as well as earning a business. Statistics suggest that influencer marketing is set to become a 15 billion dollar industry by 2022. 63% of the marketers have already dedicated and multiplied the budget for social media marketing to improve public relations and attract more potential customers.
This new digital culture’s unending creativity and communicative potential never cease to be surprising in its fast developments. These Instagram celebrities have made their way to every home. They would continue to direct communication, interaction, information and human behaviour in the society even as things slowly continue to turn towards pre-pandemic normalcy.
Work is Worship 