Darcie Wilder attended an influencer summit that turned out to be sponsored by Levi Strauss and conducted by the Ad Council.
While both the issues of immigration rights and avoiding extinction via climate change are undeniably important, I was still looking for any statements from the panelists that gestured towards anything beyond notions of “raising awareness.” Raising awareness seems to include speaking both publicly and privately, doing anything online, and holding or attending protests. They stressed the idea of “social influence,” which in this context meant that they cared about delivering information and/or making that information more widely known so that others could continue to deliver that information to others. After raising awareness, we’re supposed to buy a t-shirt (great for passive message-spreading), attend a protest, and then go home, waiting for things to change. While passing the time, we can always scroll through the hashtag connected to the issue and increase awareness by upping the engagement on some posts.
As my bastardized Leslie Knope quote (which I pull out at every possible opportunity) says, “You’re ridiculous and influencers is nothing.”