And hopefully I'm back in the blogging game. It's not that I haven't been thinking. I have all sorts of post ideas buzzing around. It's just the habit/confidence to get them down.
Anyhow. One thing I have been considering a lot is the concept of influence. I have still been posting regularly on Instagram and on that, to be an 'influencer' is this whole career idea. There are many people paid (or wanting to be paid) for posting pictures of clothes, travel, beauty and homewares on their social media and blogs. They want the #freeshit (as one particularly grasping Instagrammer puts it). They say they're 'real'. And of course they all start 'real' because they start small. But as they get more followers (influence), more opportunities present themselves. So it all becomes less and less real. Their chats about family, work and life in general are in themselves influenced by their new positions. They are regularly photographed in cheaper brands they would now never wear in their own time or they post 'paid for' (not #freeshit) outfits which are way beyond the budget of most. (£1500 Loewe handbag, anyone?) They moan about being busy but in actual interviews it transpires that they can now afford PAs and nannies. It's the way of the world. It's a new social media world but it's old world social climbing. Personally, I have come to the conclusion that it isn't healthy for the rest of us to be constantly looking at what we 'ought' to have/dress like/look like. Therein lies dissatisfaction (to say nothing of the credit card bill).
But the term 'influencer' is very interesting in these weird and worrying times. 'Influence' is claimed to be responsible for election results, Brexit, teen angst, male suicide rates, you name it. Of course, influencing people is nothing new. It runs the spectrum from basic advertising, through PR and social media to propaganda. Electioneering. Canvassing. Manipulating. Prompting. Guiding. Pressuring.
Except it's not the same as before. Because the influence is 24/7. In our pockets or handbags, on our watches. As we work, 'appropriate' ads pop up on our laptops. And the lines are increasingly blurred. Is that Instagram post an ad or isn't it? Is that tweet real news or not? And there are often global implications turning on one tweet or one post.
I recently read Travellers in the Third Reich. An account of visiting foreigners' experiences in Germany prior to the Second World War. It is fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. The Nazis excelled at sowing doubt in people's minds. In influencing. 'Fake news' at the top of its game.
And recent tweets by Donald Trump really got me thinking about the fascism parallels again. He was ranting about 'bias' by Google. He and other ultra right wingers claim that Google's search engines prioritise 'left-wing' material. (Click here to see an article about this.)
What Trump did with this series of tweets was to water the massive seeds of doubt already carried by his main support. But also to chip away at the minds of others unfortunately. Not many people seem to know how these big tech companies really work but millions of us get our information from them. Alongside Trump's attacks on the traditional media, he is now telling people that they cannot trust their main online sources of information. Massive influence. Immediate impact. Fascism has previously been established with 40% support. His true believers will not check the sources he claims to use for his 'facts'. But more importantly, the middle ground of undecideds will start to question their use of Google.
So it's time we started to make better use of OUR influence. Unfollow social media people who don't make you feel good or whose motives you questions is a small way to do this. Without us, they are nothing after all. But more importantly, start questioning the news. Use fact checkers. Read a broad base of media. And check out The Perils of Perception: Why We're Wrong about Nearly Everything by Bobby Duffy. You will be shocked. And that's a true fact.
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