Influencers and Selfies
Selfies are a practice that widely spread in our generations. The instant access to a camera which can capture each moment of one’s life made it possible for people to capture any moment of their lives and share it instantly. With this practice, several worries started arising. Selfies became a topic that is widely discussed in every aspect. One reoccurring worry is the worry that selfies and selfie taking have become a phenomenon that is encouraging narcissism and normalizing this behavior. With this worry of a narcissistic youth arose the worry of a self-branding one. Selfies started being studied, how can u pose to get more likes; a posture or what you are trying to show through the selfie became a way to define and to “sell” yourself. In our research, we focused on what makes a good character brand. We sent a survey to 24 people between the ages of 18 and 22 asking questions about what types of selfies they prefer to like or post, and found out that most like type of selfie is the travel selfie, and that more people follow influencers for their character.
Self-branding is a phenomenon that is being widely practiced today, not only by influencers, but by other people who either aim to be influencers or who aim to get more likes. “Central to self-branding is the idea that, just like commercially branded products, individuals benefit from having a unique selling point, or a public identity that is singularly charismatic and responsive to the needs and interests of target audiences” (Khamis, Ang & Welling, 2016). That is what influencers are doing in order to become famous, they pick one trait or character and start “capitalizing” on it. By branding themselves, they create a certain niche of interest that companies use in order to promote their product. Selfies are not necessarily related to narcissism, they have become tools to sell certain products. Influencers use their selfies to promote certain brands, the difference between this and an ad is that the product is promoted in a more personal way since followers feel more connected to the influencer since they experience their day to day lives (Abidin, 2013 as cited in Abidin, 2016). These influencers become a product through the act of self- branding, they are not only selling products, but also an image they created. Selfies become a form of labor where women turn themselves into objects in order to fit in and feel valuable (Gram, 2013 as cited in Iqani & Schroeder, 2016). Yet, other views show that selfies are a way to either promote or challenge cultural norms; either people will embody the norm or will challenge it (Iqani & Schroeder, 2016). Negative views about the selfie reflect a sort of moral panic, a lot of people worry that the increase of selfie taking reflects a new extremely narcissistic generation.
Our research reflected some of the findings of other research. We found that most people (38.1%) follow influencers because of their personality. This finding specifically shows that people really do feel like they connect with influencers since the personality of a person is the first thing we look at in order to be friends with them. Also, it shows that throughout our sample, most believe that the selling point of an influencer is their personality. Yet we can’t ignore that 28.57% of participants follow influencers for their looks which shows that what you look like still plays a big role in having followers or not. This shows that beauty norms are reinforced through building a certain character brand since it determines how many followers you have. Another finding showed that in what influencers post, the pictures that most people prefer are travel/adventure selfies (41.67%) then outfit of the day selfies and inspirational selfies (20.83%), and finally selfies where the influencer looks good (8.33%).
Yet the categories authentic selfies (no makeup for ex) make up selfies, and body selfies (where they show off their bodies) we’re not chosen. In a way, that does reflect our previous finding where we see that people mostly follow influencers for their character. Yet in the previous question, the second reason why they follow them is their looks, yet not many people like an influencers picture where they look good. We also asked what type of selfie the participants post. Most of them (62.5%) of the participants mostly post selfies they look good in; this shows that there are different criteria for posting selfies or liking selfies. Another finding that was similar to some research is that half the people we asked believed that they could be influencers, which shows that social media led us to believe that anyone can be famous.
The most important thing to become an influencer is how they portray themselves, how they sell themselves. In order to become “micro famous” which is being famous within a certain niche of people, ordinary people started to mimic how other influencers do that, they started performing themselves. They started using the same tactics which have become almost inherited by our generations since we see it everywhere. Yet, not many of those “struggling” influencers reach that point. One thing social media is trying to make people believe, is that anyone can become famous and can have many followers, which is pushing people more and more to brand themselves through creating a certain persona. It is not about good or bad character brand, it is a package of looks “persona” and luck. For influencers who have already made it, the persona that they created helps them sell a lifestyle. They post pictures wearing luxurious brands or on a beautiful island and try to sell certain products, and that works exactly like ads we see on television or on the street.
They are selling us a way of life. But the main difference is that when we look at ads, we are more indifferent, but with influencers, since we are invested in them, or we relate to them we feel like we know and connect with them which makes it easier to sell whatever they want. Through self-branding and through building this persona, influencers start selling their lives their thoughts, and they turn themselves into a product.
