Discussion about this post

User's avatar
DeeDee D's avatar

Subscribed to Freedman, thx for the heads up.

Too anxious to read about Loab. yikes.

And utterly thrilled if today's "influencers" lose their followers. We need completely different influencers now. Decent, Humane, Clever, Natural looking, and HONEST.

Wouldn't that be awesome?

Another good Triad. Thx, JVL.

Expand full comment
M. Trosino's avatar

Will admit up front that I've spent exactly zero-zip-nada time looking at / listening to what 'influencers' do and say. Only know about them from other sources. Probably because I'm of an age that doesn't require the 'modeling' of any 'lifestyle' to influence how I live. All of that happened a long time ago, under the aegis of parents, teachers and contemporaries in the real world, before the digital world gave rise to the phenomenon of these hucksters and their 'followers'.

In our society / economy (it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the two) everyone has something to sell, one way or another. The most basic product we have to market is ourselves. We have to sell ourselves to get a job, find a mate, etc. But that we *need* (capitalism always responds to *needs*) influencers to *sell* so many of us a lifestyle is just another indication of the shallowing of our society brought on by the digital age. I'm not complaining about it. What would be the point? I'm just saddened by it. But if this particular phenomenon is beginning to wane a bit, that's a good thing, I think.

However, just as 'the poor will always be with us', so too with Pied Pipers and lemmings. And sadly, there are much more serious consequences from this than a bunch of impressionable dopes trying to mimic a fashionable lifestyle of the moment.

Sigh...

Expand full comment
53 more comments...