An alternate view: The real influencer scam

Recently Seth Godin wrote a post that received a ton of commentary on the social media stream: “The real scam of influencers.” But there is no influencer scam at all.

The premise of his article: Seeking popularity on the web is not a sustainable business model. Instead, we should focus on meaningful work instead of signals of personal popularity like “likes.”

Highlights from his post:

“There are tens of thousands of humans spending their days trying to be popular on Instagram, buying outfits, wearing hats and seeking their version of cute. People from all backgrounds and genders, hoping to be the next Kardashian.

“The lessons of the high school lunch table run deep.

“Part of the scam is that the pyramid scheme of attention will somehow pay off for a lot of people. It won’t. It can’t. The math doesn’t hold up. Someone is going to win a lottery, but it probably won’t be us.

“And a bigger part is that the things you need to do to be popular (the only metric the platforms share) aren’t the things you’d be doing if you were trying to be effective, or grounded, or proud of the work you’re doing.”

The post appeals to our sense of personal pride in believing that meaningful work matters — not these lightweight Instagram stars.