My Latest Guilty Pleasure — Influencers Gone Wild

Well, y’all, I’m down to my last three projects for the bedroom, and then it will be FINISHED! I still need to cover the attic access, paint the side table (which I’ve already done, but I don’t like the color), and paint the outlet covers. Then I’ll probably take tomorrow to make sure everything is finished, maybe do some paint touchups if needed, and get my final pictures that I’ll share with you on Monday. I can’t believe that I’m finally this close to the finish line on this massive bedroom suite project that I’ve been working on for over a year!

So in the meantime, I wanted to share what I’ve been listening to lately to keep myself entertained while I work. I’m always listening to something while I work, whether it’s a podcast or a YouTube video. I never listen to music. I like stories and information.

Anyway, over my break at the end of last year, I caught up on some episodes from a YouTube channel I follow. The woman’s name is Hannah Alonzo, and I’ve followed her for a while now. Her channel started out with her making videos about her anti-MLM (multi-level marketing) stance, and how these MLM companies are all about money, but rarely about quality products or taking care of the people who actually pour their lives into selling these products. I’ve never been into MLMs myself, but I found the content interesting because I see so many influencers signing up and using their social media accounts to sell these products. It was interesting to get a peek into the companies and how they actually operate from her perspective and the perspectives of the people who write to her and share their experiences.

But then, in addition to the anti-MLM content, Hannah started doing a series on Influencer Insanity. That content really interested me because it’s something that I’ve gotten really frustrated with myself, and I’ve even written about it here on my blog at least once in the past. In fact, just at the end of last year, I wrote a post about how the world of “influencers” has caused me not to believe anyone who’s trying to sell me stuff because it seems that it’s all about how much product they can sell and how much money they can make, and so many of them will hawk products that are poor quality if it can make them a buck.

What I hadn’t realized (because I kind of live in my own little bubble and don’t spend much time on TikTok or Instagram) is just how insane so many of these “influencers” have become. The craziest stuff seems to be on TikTok, and that’s not really my world. But I’m telling you that I wouldn’t trust a single person trying to sell me stuff on TikTok after I’ve gone down this rabbit hole.

Anyway, after watching several of Hannah’s Influencer Insanity videos, YouTube started suggesting other channels and videos on the same topic since that’s how the algorithm works. And that’s when I came across Kiki Chanel. Her channel covers the same topics — anti-MLM and the insane world of social media influencers. I seriously can’t get enough of these videos, and I listen to/watch them in complete disbelief of what this world of “influencing” has become.

The bottom line is that it has led to an insane amount of overconsumption just for the purpose of content creation. If you want a glimpse into this world, Hannah’s Influencer Insanity Episode 14, titled “TikTok’s Beauty Overconsumption Crisis Is Out Of Control” is a good place to start. I mean, just take a look at this person’s skin care collection…

It’s just drawers and drawers and drawers filled with skin care products. How can one person use all of that? You have to use one product for at least a few weeks to see if it actually works for you, so there’s no way a person could use all of that and give an honest review of the product. And yet, she’s a skin care product content creator trying to promote these products to other people so that she can make money off of the sales. This is truly insane. And just the sheer amount of money being spent on these products that all have expiration dates is crazy to me! So much of that will necessarily end up in the trash because they’ll expire long before she can use them.

Here’s another screenshot of a person with a “skincare room” filled with products. I mean, just look at all of these products! How in the world could you take a recommendation seriously from a person who clearly doesn’t use any of these products long enough to know if they’re effective? And who in the world needs a ROOM dedicated to skin care products? This is just consumption for the sake of content creation and selling products.

And here’s one more screenshot from that video of a person who unboxed over 40 brand new razors and put them on her shower wall. Why in the world does anyone need a “razor collection”? Who’s buying 40 razors in one purchase? Content creators, of course! And who’s benefiting from this content?

Kiki did a video on the topic as well, and here’s a screenshot from a woman who has an entire closet, plus part of her living room, dedicated to storing her shower products. And again, this is all for content creation and selling products. She will never be able to use all of these products!

It’s all just overconsumption for the sake of content creation and selling products. It has truly reached the point of insanity. And the problem is that many of these content creators have millions of followers, so they’re being fed these overconsumption videos as their regular social media diet, and watching overconsumption breeds a desire for overconsumption.

And just to show you that you need to be suspicious of literally ALL influencers, let me tell you really quickly about one crazy story. I don’t remember the name of this particular influencer, but she because very popular in the health and wellness online space because she shared her own weight loss journey after having children. She wanted to lose the baby weight, so she really got serious about diet and exercise and shared her eating and exercise plan with her followers. And because she seemed so genuine and was having great success, she had a huge online following.

Then she started selling her diet and exercise plan so that others could follow her plan and presumably have the same successful results that she had. And she made a massive amount of money selling these plans. I think there was the option of a one-time purchase of a plan, or you could join a monthly coaching type of program. Anyway, she was making a ton of money off selling her plan.

Well, come to find out, she was not only using her diet and exercise plan, but she was also using a GLP-1, like Ozempic. And she never felt the need to share that crucial information with her followers until she had been on a GLP-1 for A YEAR. So while she was selling her diet and exercise program to people who desperately wanted and hoped to have the same success that she had had with this program, she felt like it was perfectly fine to make all of this money off of people while failing to mention that she had a secret tool in her own life to help her lose the weight.

And the crazy thing is that when she finally made a video sharing that she had been on a GLP-1 for a year, she still didn’t seem to understand that what she had done was completely shady and dishonest. She actually didn’t understand why people were so angry. I mean, it’s like some of these people do not have a conscience at all. They will do whatever they need to do to sell you products so that they can make money off of you, and to heck with honesty and ethics. It just blows my mind. Kiki did a video about this woman, and you can see that here.

So that has been my guilty pleasure lately. 😀 I just can’t get enough of seeing how insane the whole world of “influencing” has become. I really hope that Hannah’s and Kiki’s channels and videos will be a big part of bringing this whole “influencer” culture to an end. But in the meantime, I’m going to indulge in this guilty pleasure of mine and watch every video they put out on the topic because it’s all very entertaining, even if it is so maddening.

And I have one more recommendation. As I was going down this whole rabbit hole of social media influencer insanity, the YouTube algorithm also brought me another video about this woman named Elizabeth Teckenbrock who gained a big following on TikTok and exposed her abusive ex-husband. Initially, everyone who heard her story rallied around her and supported her. And then the truth was exposed. She was (and still is) a con artist who had lied more than once about having cancer, had set up a fraudulent charity, had deceived and manipulated people repeatedly, and had scammed one man in particular out of a million dollars with her claims of having cancer and other health issues.

There’s a podcast about her called eLIESabeth, and I binged the whole thing in two days. While I was building and upholstering the base of our bed, this is what I was listening to. You can find the podcast here.

So be careful out there, y’all. 😀 Don’t fall into the trap of these influencers and scammers.