They're fucking annoying. The fact that someone would put effort into becoming an influencer is cringe.
this post was submitted on 04 Jan 2023
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This is a title people give to you, not a registered profession. Linus, from Linux Tech Tips is an influencer insofar as he influences people.
While a lot of kids saying "I want to be famous" are a little cringe, if we want to be more charitable we should understand people who say 'I want to be an influencer' simply as 'I want to do well at this job', which isn't a bad thing, unless the job is bad.
I think OP was thinking more along the lines of those "content creators" with their shopping vlogs or similar.
But that's the problem with the term influencer. While some of them could be the content creators you're talking about, there are people who qualify as influencers that do good for a particular niche. Anybody who is slightly youtube famouse or has a popular podcast is an influencer, even if they're also a science communicator, environmental activist, or something else. It's a pointless term that means someone gained a following online, which is a distinction that serves no purpose when most people use the internet for their work.
Also, your opinion on them doesn't really matter. If there are people watching/listening/reading them, then they're providing value to those people. What's the point of sitting around judging people who aren't hurting anybody when they're giving some people something they want?
Almost everyone who post content on individual-focused platfotms ie. not reddit or lemmy could be considered an influencer, but that could make the term meaningless.
A more precise definition could be about working full-time as a content creator or being well known in a certain niche, but regardless, they're all just humans.
Even if they're trying to sell something, it's mostly to get by and grow, and even if their content is super annoying and obnoxious, I don't have to watch them and it's just a character they're putting on.
Obviously one could point to things such as self-esteem issues and fake authenthicity, but they're not something you can fix by hating on influencers.
TLDR; They're just another type of worker, comrade.