Social Media and Influencer Culture: Business Growth or Mental Health Decline?
In recent years, social media has become a major source of power, influence, and communication for people all across the world, particularly in younger generations. Influencers on various platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook have caught the worldwide attention of millions of people through their promotion of clothing, hygiene, and lifestyle products. Whilst their sponsorships of luxury brands have led to a significant rise in sales and business development for many different brands and companies, studies have shown that this has also led to several harmful effects for teens and young adults.
Through short-form content and fast-paced reels, social media has played an enormous role within the current world that we live in, whether it be in politics, media or communicating with others. According to Business Insider, around 85% of Americans actively use YouTube, 69% use Facebook, 51% use Instagram, and 38% use TikTok. Influencers especially are responsible for these impacts on social media platforms, promoting businesses that can range from clothing, health and fitness. In fashion, influencers are often paid to promote new style trends or revive old ones, often promoting luxury, high-end brands such as Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Louis Vuitton; the list is endless. They even go as far to share promo codes to allow their followers to access discounts and deals with the brands they are sponsoring, encouraging many to rethink what's inside their wardrobes.
Consequently, luxury brands have been able to thrive and have reached higher levels of popularity and success. For instance, Britain’s fashion industry, according to Influencer, has grown tremendously in recent years and is expected to generate ‘39.95 billion revenue by the end of 2024.’ While the market influence for influencers in 2024 was predicted to reach nearly $2 billion USD, ads reached as high as $19.86 billion USD, with the fashion industry being a major contributor.
On top of these luxury brand deals, influencers have also built channels with millions of viewers to share their outfits. Besides clothing, they have also helped the sale and promotion of beauty, skincare, fast food, and lifestyle products. What determines the popularity of these goods is largely down to the number of followers an influencer has, as the number of followers influencers or organisations have on various social media platforms can be a powerful status symbol, enabling easier engagement from viewers as they keep up with their content.
However, because these companies maintain a high number of followers, they are also responsible for having to deal with the shortening attention spans seen within younger generations, caused through extensive hours of doomscrolling through social media. When posting, influencers must limit their videos to between 30 seconds and under a minute in order to grasp and hold the attention of people who watch their content.
Influencers may have helped businesses to thrive, allowing people to explore their own sense of style, but it has come with a cost that individuals are gradually awakening to. Content showcasing individuals wearing and using high-end luxury goods (often gifted to them for free in exchange for advertising on social media platforms) is far from the reality of what most people can afford. This often results in feelings of jealousy, inadequacy and self-consciousness, leading to a lack of focus, sleep, and self-esteem.
According to Pew Research, numerous studies have revealed these harmful effects on young teenagers. For instance, one study found that “four-in-ten or more teens say social media platforms hurt the amount of sleep they get (45%), as well as their productivity (40%)," and "about one-in-five teens say social media hurt their mental health (19%) or grades (22%).”
As social media continues its unstoppable climb, we should begin questioning the role influencers have played in promoting new ideas of consumerism, as they continue encouraging people to explore (or question) their own interests and styles, and bring more awareness to its damaging impacts, especially on younger generations.
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