The influence of influencers: how stars shape our lives!

The influence of influencers: how stars shape our lives!

In today's media landscape, social media influencers take on a key role in the information behavior of young people. A current study shows that 81 percent of 16- to 29-year-olds subscribe to posts and videos of influencers who often go beyond topics such as fashion and Lifestyle and also deal with socially relevant questions. These personalities who act as role models have the potential to inform their followers about important topics and to influence their opinion formation, as krone.at

The format and the type of communication of these influencers are crucial. Girls in particular build more emotional relationships with the personalities they followed, while boys often take a more rational view. These different approaches mean that influencers are able to offer orientation and inspiration-be it on topics such as time management or political events that a paper on the role of social media influencers in the opinion formation process. However, there are clear differences: In political content, the respondents rather refer to classic news sources, while lifestyle and everyday questions are often treated by influencers, such as Usethenews.de emphasized

The study openly reveals that many young people develop a parasocial relationship with these influencers, which means that they perceive them as friends even though they never had personal contact. This binding can have both positive and critical side effects. Some respondents demand more differentiation between expressions of opinion and objective information in order to be able to adequately evaluate the influence of influencers on their own opinion. In a world in which influencers are increasingly shaping the perception of social issues, the question remains to what extent they can actually be considered a trustworthy source of information.