Become an influencer

The argument

Becoming a social media influencer can improve personal branding and be used to spread helpful and critical information to marginalised communities. Lockdown has largely done away with the typical influencer content of aspirational and inspirational habits and activities. Influencers used to promote healthy and desirable lifestyles, comprised of Starbucks latte's, spin classes, yoga, and travel. But lockdown has changed the game. Now influencers are using their platform to keep people informed. In fact, Finland has gone as far as to classify influencers there as 'critical operators' alongside doctors and public transit officers. Finland's government communications director has said that "The aim of this cooperation is to provide better access to information for those who are difficult to reach through traditional channels." Influencers have a platform that can be reshaped to fit the needs of the time and reach a wide number of audiences with important current information on safety and hygiene guidance. There has been wide governmental praise for various influencers during the lockdown, including fitness instructor Joe Wicks who has been doing youtube physical education classes for children stuck at home. Influencers have a platform to spread positive and important messages to parts of the population who might not be tuned into to ordinary news media circles, such as children and teens.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The argument names an outcome rather than a skill, while the position concerns skills worth learning. Becoming an influencer depends on audience, timing and luck as much as on any competence, and it cannot be acquired by practice in the way that video editing, copywriting, analytics or design can — those are the transferable digital skills the position needs, and two of the sibling positions cover the writing and communication elements more directly. The evidence offered also concerns people who already had platforms. The Finnish scheme worked because there were established influencers with reach to enlist, and Joe Wicks was a fitness professional with a large following before the lockdown began; neither shows that building such a platform was a realistic project for someone starting during a period of confinement, when attention concentrated on accounts that already commanded it. The body's own account of the shift undercuts the usefulness claim as well: it observes that the pre-lockdown content model was abruptly set aside, which describes an unstable field whose requirements changed without warning, and it gives no reason to expect the public-information role to persist afterwards — as it largely did not. For the many who attempt this and do not gain an audience, the time invested yields neither the platform nor a portable capability, which is what "most useful" requires.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Becoming an influencer is an outcome dependent on audience, timing and luck rather than a skill acquired by practice; the transferable competences are the editing, writing, analytics and design work that underlie it. [Rejecting P2] The examples concern people who already held platforms — the Finnish scheme enlisted existing influencers and Joe Wicks was an established fitness professional with a large following — so they do not show that building one was a realistic project for someone starting during lockdown.