What do we do on our days off? We start by binging on content by our favourite creators and then spiral down the internet rabbit hole.
That’s how one of the DYT peeps stumbled upon a video this past weekend, and we just had to share it with you. Since it’s 11 minutes long and our attention spans are fickle, here’s a little background to warm you up.
Using social media through the lens of an influencer
3.6 billion people worldwide are on social media. That’s nearly half of Earth’s population (7.8 billion). Every day more people spend more time on social media platforms.
On average, we’re scrolling through socials for 144 minutes. That’s 2.5 hours every day for every user. To put it into perspective, it’s equivalent to 7 years of your life. Let’s make it clearer. That’s more time than you spend on shopping plus cleaning your house plus socialising face to face!
Undoubtedly, socials are a vital part of our lives. Yet, some people feel it is adversely affecting our lives.
While we don’t disagree, we’d like to point out that these platforms are just tools. How you use them defines the outcome. Use it to troll, abuse and bully, and the impact is negative. Use it to foster community, and the effect is positive.
And that’s what the video talks about. It is a story told by a young professional, wife and mother who battled an aggressive breast cancer form. She decided to share her chemotherapy journey online and, in the process, touched the lives of many other women, essentially becoming an influencer.
Who is an influencer?
The woman emphasises on the definition of an influencer. She clarifies that it is not someone you follow whose Instagram Stories are all about buying a product you don’t even want, forget need.
It is also not the person with X number of followers, impression or reach. It is anyone who has the capacity to affect the behaviour of others.
There are no terms and conditions attached to being an influencer. You don’t have to be of a specific age, love a particular niche or have millions of followers.
All that matters is that you are able to impact another person by sharing your Aha Moment (watch the video to know what that means). An influencer is a person who allows others to see their reality or accepts the reality of others.
The way they comment on other profiles or how they react to posts changes someone else’s life for the better. For instance, a person may open Instagram feeling lonely, but a single comment or Reel from an influencer can help them find community, acceptance and encouragement.
We know we did a pi$$ poor job of explaining the video. It’s hard to put in words because it hits right to the heart. If you’ve been disenchanted with social media platforms or ever thought what an influencer’s value is, see the video right till the end.
The gist of it is: if we go online with the lens of a true influencer, we can change the world for the positive by constructively touching the lives of many.