Under the influence

Hello. Did anyone catch the story about the blogger (she calls herself a vlogger) who sent an email to a hotel in Dublin asking for a freebie for herself and her boyfriend, in exchange for some publicity on her social media channels? We all knows this sort of thing goes on, but she went about it in entirely the wrong way, and now it has blown up in her face. The owner of the hotel posted it on his social media, blanking out her name, and making some not so complimentary comments about her methods of freeloading. She saw it and responded thus exposing herself. Now she is saying that they exposed her by not blanking out the name properly.

The blogger calls herself a 'social media influencer', I've not heard that term before. She is the typical blonde, pouting (lip fillers), looking adoringly into a camera selfie taker, oh aren't I beautiful type. Her 87,000 yooootooob followers are slightly more, ha ha, than I have.

It's a shame that young girls today see these 'influencers', as some kind of God or Goddess, someone to aspire to, and follow their every move. When I was a young 'un, my influencers were Cilla, Sandie Shaw, and Lulu. I saw them as people to aspire to regarding fashion and make up. We were all called a 'fan' of these entertainers. We could join fan clubs, yesterdays equivalent of following a blog, I suppose. At least they did entertain properly, they could sing and dance, we could buy their records and go to their concerts. Models like Twiggy at least went to modelling school and practiced their craft on a daily basis, and commanded high fees for their professionalism. Unlike today's young influencer who puts on a skimpy, flesh exposing frock, and gawps at themselves in the corner of their bedroom. 

What does an influencer have to offer anyway? They recommend the fashion labels they wear, the make up they use to beautify themselves, the shops they like to visit, the places they eat out, prearranged for a discount, the cheap holidays they can scrounge. And of course the majority of their followers fall for this and hang on to every word, it must be right if she/he says so.

There are plenty of positive role models around, it's a shame they don't get the same publicity. What about the female pilots, doctors, lawyers, managing directors of large companies, self made millionaires who have come up from the gutter and have worked hard to own their own company. These are the women our youngsters should be looking up to.

Will these young influencers still be here in ten years time, possibly one or two, but most will fall by the wayside, or move on to get a proper job. Whinge over, now tell me what you think of it all.

Thanks for popping in, we'll catch up soon.
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