As social media platforms grow, so are the amount of modern-day influencers. Nowadays, there are thousands of people with millions of followers who are given the celebrity treatment despite not having any sort of “celebrity” type of job. That leads to many wondering whether or not being an influencer should even be taken seriously as a job itself.

Many argue that influencers are truly just normal people who got lucky. For example, many were ordinary people who had a singular video blow up overnight and are now glorified by other users. Because of this, these people are making thousands of dollars every single day by simply uploading content. That is where there is underlying controversy because to many, it is unfair that these influencers basically do nothing and live comfortably, meanwhile there are low income families who work extremely hard to not even be paid a fraction of what influencers are being paid. Joseph Gelfiuso (10) commented that “most influencers I see on TikTok are either going viral for showing off things they already own or people making up stories to guilt trip people into following and donating. I feel like the influencers making a ton of money are mostly people who don’t even need it”. 

On the other hand, some do consider being an influencer a real job. Although being a content creator is easier than many other jobs, these influencers are still creating content that requires thought, time and creativity. In most instances, these influencers have passion and love for what they are doing and treat their fans well. That being said, social media is a very harsh community, and to be able to handle that takes a lot of courage. Like mentioned earlier, many influencers were ordinary people; they were not already celebrities or kids of celebrities and nonetheless had to put in a lot of effort to be where they are now. Brooke Holmer (10) added that “either way, the option of being an influencer does open up a lot of income opportunities for a vast amount of people. Not every single influencer is going to be a good person or deserving of their wealth but a lot of them are and that’s great for them”.

Both technology and social media have grown rapidly in the last decade and will continue to do so. It may be true that being an influencer was not a stable career choice fifteen years ago, but in modern times it can be if it is the right person. Unfortunately, there are many content creators out there abusing their influence and platform, but that will always be the case in any public career. It truly depends on the said influencer’s choices and how they orchestrate their reputation and career online.