Social media and influential individuals -Abracadabra ‘I create as I speak’

26 Jan Social media and influential individuals -Abracadabra ‘I create as I speak’

Kanye West has been widely reported for his recent abhorrent antisemitic rants over social media. Sadly cases like his are nothing new; influential individuals have been innocently and purposely using their platforms to spread opinion, promotion, and endorsements for years. However, understanding the power and the danger of celebrity becomes alarmingly accurate when you realise that Kanye West has an estimated following over social media of approximately 30m compared to the total global Jewish population, which is currently around 15m.

In the last decade, the number of people using social media has tripled; in 2021, the approximate number of users was 4.48 billion. As a result, for the first time in history, influential individuals, such as celebrities, educators, and politicians, can have their opinions reach millions at the click of a button without even leaving their homes. Of course, fame and influence have always drawn attraction and admiration; however, with its extensive reach, social media has seen an upgrade in celebrity promotion. Understanding the power of celebrities on social media has raised the urgency for scholars, researchers, legislators and journalists to focus a more critical gaze towards platforms facilitating our obsessions with fame. 

Impressionable young people are now invited into a world where they can imagine an instant connection with those they choose to follow. The readily available reaction buttons, share, like, or comment, mean you are only a slide, tap or type away from the feeling that you are having a one-to-one with someone tremendous, thus, elevating your status. The more you engage, the more the algorithms will remind you to keep interacting, purchasing and admiring your chosen online celebrity deity. As a result, social media companies gain increased traffic, which in return means increased revenue, and influential individuals can earn larger platforms, followings, incomes and fame.

However, what happens when the promoted messaging pushes an unhealthy agenda, bias or incites hatred? With followers and advertising revenues in the millions, influencers on social media now have the power to manipulate the masses and exploit admiration on an unprecedented scale; celebrity information or disinformation in the twenty-first century has become a commodity. Previously democratic institutions with limited media coverage supported majority decision-making. However, influential individuals with minority influence have capitalised on persuasive groupthink, ostracising those who resist the norms of their online following. Furthermore, radical groups, of which there are hundreds of thousands, can quickly seize the opportunity to re-post celebrity statements, further validating their agendas with shared lies. Therefore, should those with such power to influence see their comments come with a disclaimer? While governments continue to pursue legislation as their answer to controlling disinformation, many of us realise that there is no magic wand. Educating young people about critical thinking may be our only solution in guarding against the dangers of social manipulation and popularity for profit. Failure of society to do so will mean simply that we will create as we speak.

Perhaps one of the first to understand the power of celebrity and propaganda was Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister for the Nazi party; as Sacha Baron Cohen said in his speech to the Anti-Defamation League in 2019, ‘Just think what Goebbels could have done with Facebook.’