Is It Just Me, or Are All of These Influencers the Same?

Liza Valencia
The Bigger Picture
Published in
4 min readOct 9, 2020
Photo by Kerde Severin from Pexels

Although the algorithm functions to flood my feed with endless iterations of white marble countertops, toast, and double walled glasses filled with espresso based on some past likes I’d made, I started to notice an eerie resemblance among influencers, even the ones I didn’t follow. They all started to look alike. Their houses, their food, and the brands they endorsed all seemed to be taken out of a single catalog. Our impulsive likes direct the algorithm to reward influencers with more likes and follows for presenting more of the same thing: every influencer’s account has morphed into one aesthetic. It has become difficult for me to remember why I liked one influencer over another.

Instagram is a successful marketing platform because of our inherent propensity to trust influencers — especially when they represent a life similar to our own. That’s the very appeal of a micro-influencer. Studies show that our perceived trust in influencers contributes to our decisions to buy. But when every influencer I follow pushes the same products, services, and brands to me, I find myself questioning their authenticity and their uniqueness. In an article by Taylor Lorenz of The Atlantic, Matt Klein, a cultural strategist at Sparks & Honey, states: “You had everyone posting these normal photos, and so that rainbow-food photo stood out. But because so many people adopted that aesthetic, that has become passé. We’re living in influencer overload.”

I stopped following a beauty YouTuber with whom I felt I shared a similar complexion and proclivities in make-up looks, which was what made her product recommendations valuable in the first place. Her channel grew so much attention from luxury brands that eventually, the majority of her content featured luxury makeup. Although I welcomed her success, she had become indistinguishable from other big beauty YouTubers, who patronized the same slew of high-end cosmetics. Her content no longer matched my consumer needs. While I do not question the cult consensus on Charlotte Tilbury and Dior products, I still find their price tags steep.

It appears that the influencers may also be under the influence, their tastes and preferences no longer truly a matter of personal choice.

I’ve recently seen several Instagram influencers share their home move-ins or renovations. I was dumbfounded that all their home furnishings looked the same: their color palettes, their pots, pans, china, and their flowers. I wasn’t sure if it was either happenstance, or all one massive Instagram ad. Influencers live in the same digital milieu we do, saturated with content similar to their own, likely following influencers who were also endorsing the same products and brands. It appears that the influencers may also be under the influence, their tastes and preferences no longer truly a matter of personal choice. We are all rewarding each other for liking, buying, and endorsing the same things. Differentiation has become a scarcity in my digital sphere.

While innovative marketing strategies or novel products are always an answer to differentiation, influencers can also opt to leverage their opinion leadership, their reach, and their communities to draw attention to things beyond mere consumption. I spend a lot more time at home thanks to the pandemic, which means a lot more time browsing feeds, YouTube hauls, and online stores. While online shopping is its own euphoria, I really do not need more things. Influencers can position themselves uniquely by spotlighting topics, interests, or causes they truly care about, that can’t be simplified into a dress, espresso machine, or shelf. Jameela Jamil comes to mind: an actress and influencer whose advocacy is to dismantle oppressive patriarchal norms that cripple women’s self-image through her iWeigh platform. There’s Bea Johnson, an advocate and educator on zero-waste living and the author of Zero Waste Home.

Causes may be less tangible, but they are interesting and personal. It’s everyone’s combination of interests and opinions that make us all so unique and human, not just the things we like. Perhaps choosing to showcase these will change the way influencers present their content, and therefore how and what we see.

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Liza Valencia
Liza Valencia

Written by Liza Valencia

Culling experiences, asking questions, and writing about self-development, media and technology, and the future.

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