As the world faces major issues such as poverty, climate change, wars and a widening social divide, the world also cries out for people with the entrepreneurial spirit, strength, power and intellect to resolve them. But unfortunately, the world is now a place where thought out solutions for the benefit of mankind is held hostage to a loss of intellect and thought in the decision-making process.
For a long time, we put our trust in democracy and the expression of the will of the people. We listened to the arguments and made our choices according to what was on offer. However, these days elections are decided not on who people want as result of what candidates offer, which parties they don’t want. Probably the most successful campaign of ‘sit back and let the others lose it’ was the Labour Party victory in the UK last year. They received the lowest vote share of any majority government since 1945 and yet gained a massive majority due to people not wanting the alternatives.
But this lack of effort to make logical, fact-based decisions has permeated into so many other aspects of our life. The world today is overpopulated with ‘influencers.’ At a survey last year, it was estimated that there were 127 million influencers world-wide. These influencers target the younger generation, 60% of whom are likely to be influenced to buy products appearing on influencers posts. These influencers make their money by promoting products.
Unfortunately, this large body of influencers rarely seem to attempt to influence thinking on the major issues facing us but focus on such serious subjects as fashion and appearance. But then, there isn’t lots of money in trying to influence our approach to such things as poverty in an industry committed to generate personal wealth. This group identity by the younger generation is a thinly disguised advertising medium where the major brands can reach much greater numbers of their younger target market through the large number of younger generation followers.
There is no denying that a successful influencer can make a living as part of a company’s marketing activity but, not one of the top influencers is an ordinary person. The top influencer in the world is Ronaldo with 733 million follows across multiple platforms. This helps him attract about $45 million a year from sponsorship. It probably allows him to pay people to manage his input across the platforms. I don’t imagine him sitting in his office on his laptop posting all day long!
You could argue that influencers are the digital equivalent of the adverts in magazines in the doctor’s waiting room of fifty years ago. However, at least we knew we were looking at an advertisement. Magazines were doing well if they got a circulation of a quarter of a million in their heyday. Having one of the Kardashian’s applying lip gloss on a video from their own makeup range is a bit different to Maybeline’s Kiss Deliciously advert for a new lipstick in Teen magazine in the 60’s.
What we now have is a society where group think is the order of the day. It doesn’t matter whether it is choosing politicians to represent you or deciding on what to buy or do, we follow the herd rather than form our own opinions.
By doing so, we become less empowered and those we follow, whether politicians or celebrities, reap the benefits of financial gain and/or power at our expense. Instead of hiding in the group and snatching a burger and fries type opinion as our own, perhaps we should get back in the intellectual kitchen and start creating a mind of our own. It is only by creating a mind of our own that we can become the entrepreneurs that can come up with solutions for the increasingly complex and threatening problems the world faces.
Alternatively, the young can be better dressed and groomed when we all go to hell in a handcart!
