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Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

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Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#31

Post by shellehs »

cyberferret wrote: post #5

My wife and I were just talking about this today, coincidentally. She follows a few people around the world who are artists or collectors on IG. She pointed out to me that when she started following some of them more than a year ago, they had a few hundred followers, and were posting general stuff, but which all felt heartfelt and 'in the moment'. I think 'genuine' was the word my wife used. Kids doing silly things.…

I guess(and hope) more and more people are going to accept the fact, most beautiful photos on social media are fake and crafted reality. The people appeared in a photo just like a cartoon character similarly. What you see is not reality but dream you want to live with. Just like you are watching a movie, sometime you can get out from the movie, but you know it is a movie deep in your heart

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#32

Post by mrtksn »

thinkloop wrote: post #8

I would have liked to see him continue the test without the photography, keeping just the bots and offshore friend farming - I have a feeling that's most of it. TL;DR: How to get Instagram followers: - photo quality is very important, pay for a professional - submit 3 posts a day, try to make them interesting, but that's only medium important - pay for bot to like and comment on posts with similar hash tags, so their…

I wonder what will happen when AI is good enough to imitate real internet users and ad agencies just spin up some servers in some datacenter that handles millions of bots that are indistinguishable from real people and follow the formula of the influencers.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#33

Post by padolsey »

mozumder wrote: post #15
razakel wrote: post #13

I'm with Bill Hicks when it comes to advertising and marketing. I adblock. I pirate. I don't use Facebook or other social networking sites. I don't want advertising in my life. It's propaganda. It shits in your head. If there's anybody reading this who works in those industries: you thought Generation X was cynical?

Bill Hicks never figured out the meaning of life. The entire purpose of life is to market. You get up in the morning and brush your teeth so that you're more marketable than the slob that doesn't. Everything you do can be traced back to marketing. The more people understand that, the better off they will be at handling life.

Just because we are biologically tuned to "market" ourselves, for leverage in survival/gene-spreading, I don't think it's correct to state that the "entire purpose" of life is to market oneself. Nor does it make sense to say all actions are rooted in this need. In-fact, it seems _most_ actions are in service of other basic or secondary needs. Where is the marketability in taking a piss? Or reading a novel? Or taking the dog for a walk?

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#34

Post by shiz »

mozumder wrote: post #19
razakel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The entire purpose of life is to market. Maybe my target market isn't slavish devotees of a vapid consumerist culture who assert their identity with commercial brands?

You know your marketing yourself right now with your statements to the audience here, right? An audience built around silicon valley's capitalist culture...

Since you have obviously figured this whole life-marketing thing out, what am I marketing when I am taking a shit or picking my nose?

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#35

Post by johndoe4589 »

Was just thinking about this recently as I started following a few people.

We are increasingly living in a world of fiction. Previously it was mainly fed through television. You'd grow up on television series, and as a young man/woman you'd try to be cool like them, dress like them, talk like them. You build your world view around "influential" portrayals.

Nowadays, we haven't freed ourself from media controlled television at all. It's actually worse, because now advertising is blurring the lines even more between real people and fiction. We eat and breathe fiction, then we live our own life trying to resemble it.

Nothing is new there. But what's new for me is I started to recognize that fiction in and of itself is probably as detrimental to our society as fear is. It's well known that fear drives self centered way of life and when we are in survival mode, we just don't make good choices and we lack compassion.

Lately I'm thinking that fiction, on a collective scale, is just as bad as fear. It keeps us unconscious. Just like fear it dissociates us from what we are, and from one another. It's really detrimental to us as individuals, and as a society. Unlike fear, it isn't immediately felt in the stomach.. so there is no sense of urgency.. And yet it is there... one just looks at the world to see the massive disconnect in our life on a day to day basis. I guess fear and fiction are best friends. Fear drives us to dissociate, and fiction provides the perfect happy place to dissociate.

John Berger, Ways of Seeing

"But where is this other way of life?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jTUebm73IY

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#36

Post by yk »

> (#ad #sp #liveauthentic)

In some literary critique sense, it does not so much seem hollow as it seems like authentic expression of our time. The fact that people authentically believe in success in social media does not invalidate their dreams.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#37

Post by Angostura »

razakel wrote: post #13

I'm with Bill Hicks when it comes to advertising and marketing. I adblock. I pirate. I don't use Facebook or other social networking sites. I don't want advertising in my life. It's propaganda. It shits in your head. If there's anybody reading this who works in those industries: you thought Generation X was cynical?

You should check out the 'Ultimate Bill Hicks' DVD available. Amazon have got it at reduced price at the moment and it is excellent. I laughed and laughed.

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#38

Post by Angostura »

celticninja wrote: post #20
mozumder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bill Hicks never figured out the meaning of life. The entire purpose of life is to market. You get up in the morning and brush your teeth so that you're more marketable than the slob that doesn't. Everything you do can be traced back to marketing. The more people understand that, the better off they will be at handling life.

I brush my teeth so that they last longer and I can chew food longer and thus stay alive longer, marketing only comes into it for people in marketing.

Which toothpaste do you use? And how did you come to choose that brand?

Re: Confessions of an Instagram Influencer

#40

Post by rndstr »

Angostura wrote: post #38
celticninja wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I brush my teeth so that they last longer and I can chew food longer and thus stay alive longer, marketing only comes into it for people in marketing.

Which toothpaste do you use? And how did you come to choose that brand?

I use the most inexpensive whose taste I like
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