What Does It Mean To Be Authentic In the Digital Age?

After reading Jarry Lee’s article titled “What Does It Cost To Be Big On Instagram,” I learned that online transactions for influencers are not as simple and straightforward as they may seem. People that envy influencers usually assume that they take a few pictures, post one they like and take a few minutes to write a cute or clever caption. This is not necessarily the case at least for micro influencers like Mary Gui who work long and hard hours to create content they are happy with and that authentically represent them. People also tend to think that influencers make significantly more money than they normally do despite having a following that reaches the ten thousands, and that it is immediately wired to them after posting. In reality money is not consistent as it may seem, influencers like Gui are constantly trying to stay up with the times and remain relevant in order to maintain a sufficient salary (or at least one that can meet the needs of the lifestyle they are trying to support). I also learned that there is a lot more that goes into the creation and distribution of content, even if a micro influencer is self-employed and handles all the logistics of their brand on their own they must take on the role of marketers, content specialists, web developers and other professions that individuals are often paid to do for more prominent influencers. Overall there is a lot more to being a verified social media persona than I initially thought, but that is dependent on what kind of influencer you are: if you are a more prominent one like Kylie Jenner or Bella Hadid you can afford to hire an entire team to help you.

I was aware of the Fyre Festival and the netflix film that took a closer look into how it caved in but there are still things that I noticed watching it again a second time around while looking at it through a new lens. When you consider promotional media and the role it played in creating and destroying the Fyre Festival it is incredible how powerful influencers can be in marketing a product or event such as this one. I learned that despite what may appear to be a wavering project or ingenuine motive (like Billy McFarland and Fyre/Magnesis) a person’s marketing skills can convince people to blindly trust someone even to the point of investing millions of dollars. Throughout the documentary multiple employees recounted how at one point or another they were unsure if Billy was the smartest man in the room or just downright delusional. He defrauded investors out of millions of dollars and even though the project had holes in it since the beginning his staff, clients and even guests were fooled by him. This goes to show that his skills in marketing and appeal to target audiences through influencers and promotional media had the power to create an astronomical event but due to his own mistakes and malpractice it was a disaster. This leads me to my final take away from the reading “Branding the Authentic,” where Sarah-Banet-Weiser shows the audience how that brands figure out ways to better appeal to their audiences and their undying pursuit of “authenticity.” In this piece I was faced with a reconsideration of what it really means to be authentic and how brands interpret this term. In a perfect world authenticity means being fully open and honest about oneself and their motives but it isn’t a perfect world and unfortunately the commercial world can be quite corrupt. Brands strive to appear authentic in the sense that they want to seem down-to-earth and welcoming to all different kinds of people. Some companies are genuine in their efforts and actually try to be accepting of everyone but others are just putting on a front in order to appeal to more consumers (whether or not they genuinely support a cause or belief/value). It wasn’t until reading this piece that I really conceptualized the idea of brands as being attached to a set of values, morals, feelings and authenticity but after thinking about it and applying it to my previous knowledge of different brands it is apparent that this is the case. I see this especially with the brand Chick-fil-A and how they present themselves. For instance they close their establishment on Sundays to support religious traditions/faiths (specifically christains), they also have an extreme dedication to top-notch customer service and they have a history of funding/donating to overtly anti-LGBT foundations or charities.