What is an “influencer”?
Let’s talk Tik Tok.
No. Not the Chinese threat to our national security. (Maybe?)
No. Not the President’s 180 to make it possible for one of his billionaire buddies to buy it from the Chinese. (Well, yes.)
No. Not the fact that it is mostly a wasteland of meaningless, soulless—but oh-so-ironic! and cute and catchy!—garbage that sucks power from the grid. (Yeah, sure.)
But THIS: The ignorant and harmful Tik Tok information peddlers who spew false, misleading, and dangerous “advice” about medical issues, mental health concerns, nutrition. The ones who teach kids how to inflict self-harm. The ones who promote Benadryl “challenges” that send kids to the ER.
And THIS: The “influencers” who shill products and attempt to spark trends, whose content centers on consumption, who support themselves (quite handsomely) by influencing scrollers to become even better consumer capitalists than they (we) are. Or to do truly stupid and dangerous things. Influencer marketing, just so you know, was a $21.2 billion industry last year.
Obviously, I’m not a fan of the platform. Yeah, yeah, some funny stuff. And yeah, occasionally even clever. And there are some thoughtful people on the platform, including, even, some writers. (BookTok!)
But I come here not to bury Tik Tok. Although I would like to. I come to rescue a Tik Tok-related word, influencer, which has undergone a significant shift, its original gravitas eroded by the commercialization of social media. The word once connoted someone who truly shaped perspectives or initiated meaningful change—historical figures, thought leaders, artists, innovators whose ideas and actions inspired others to think differently, create, or act. Now it’s the girl who tells you to use bar soap to groom your eyebrows. Or the guy who instructs you to “dry scoop” protein powder before workouts to boost energy.
True influencers lead with insight and vision. They challenge existing paradigms, provoke thought—often at personal cost or in defiance of the prevailing culture. They make us uncomfortable in the best way, urging us to grow: Rachel Carson, James Baldwin, Greta Thunberg. Nelson Mandela, Dennis Banks, Alice Paul.
Of the many words I would like to reclaim from their eroded, overused, desiccated state (awesome tops the list), add influencer.