Can Influencers Handle the Pressure of Social Media?

Hypothesis: 

I think that a person who has over 10k followers on social media could have a bigger impact on their mental health compared to someone with less than 10 thousand. They have a bigger audience meaning that their followers may be expecting for them to post more frequently or show more of their personal life. This could affect their mental health and create stress and anxiety etc. 

Influencers are pressured to: 

Have influencer friends 

Always be a good role model 

Post often 

Share their personal life 

Show no bad emotions 

Always get promotions/sponsorships 

Get lots of likes and a good following 

Interview: 

I interviewed four influencers to get a better understanding and a clear idea of what it's really like being in the position of an influencer. We focus so much on the people looking at the images that we forget about what it's like to be in the influencer's position. 

I plan to message two micro users (someone with under 10k followers) and compare them with two influencers with over 10k followers.  

I asked three questions -

1. How has being a social media influencer affected your mental health? 

2. Is there a bad side of being an influencer?  

3. What's the good side of being an influencer?

Micro user: 

Influencer 1. 

Social media is full of comparison, I think for me that was something I had to quickly shut down. I would look at other girls and think “why can’t I have that” “why can’t I look like that” but then had to realize that it is the best angles, the best lighting, and also probably very edited. I used to feel like my worth was based on the number of likes I would get, which is another thing I had to correct myself in. I have learned when I need to get off social media when it’s harming my mental health. Again the comparison thing, basing your self worth off your social media. Feeling like you have to live up to this “social media” expectation of what you have to be in real life. I absolutely love being able to use this platform to share pieces of my life and obviously to promote my music. I can connect with people all over the world at my fingertips! I do love social media it’s amazing.  
@Indyah

Influencer 2.  

Honestly, doing Instagram has affected my mental health in a super positive way. Obviously, my Instagram is all about self-love, healthy mindsets, body positivity etc. I touch a lot on mental health and so that’s the topic of conversation - that’s the interactions I have with others. 

So for my personal mental health, it’s been great for the most part. 

The bad parts of this for me is obviously not crazy. I’m not huge, I don’t have a massive pressure compared to large influencers. But for me, I would say it’s been horrible going through my breakup with everyone knowing. Although he’s removed from my profile now I did have my boyfriend involved in my social media - going through it publicly sucks and I want to be sad and share things but it involves the other person. So I guess it’s just difficult going through hard times publicly. And also like people talking about you and creating little theories about you and your relationships. The best side of it is honestly sharing a strong message that I’m passionate about. Like I always needed this kind of voice when I was younger and dealing with issues and now I’m able to be that person for others and it’s beautiful and it feels so good. 

Another great side of it too is earning an income from home! I haven’t made much from social media but I have made some money and that’s really cool too! The pressure of coming up with content is very small for me. I am all about my message, about my personal journey so if I have nothing to say or nothing worthy of value than I am very content with not posting at all. A lot of brands will try to rip you off or act as if your service has 0 value so you need to understand that you have worth and value. Captions are only made when I have something real and authentic to say that I think will help someone! 

@christinephilippa

 An influencer with over 10k: 

Influencer 1.  

I started my Instagram many years ago as a place to share my style and creative work. I now manage a major fashion brand's Instagram as well as my own personal one. 

I personally see Instagram purely as a business tool and try to keep my personal life separate. I am very aware of the insides of Instagram's algorithms and that unless you play to their game it will not matter how good your content is. So this helps in grounding my mental health when it comes to my personal page. I also treat it as somewhere purely to share! I post for myself because I am proud of my work and not for validation. 

I have personally not hit a point where my Instagram attracts trolls. However, the large brand I work for does. It is hard not to take this personally when you know the lack of truth that comes from hateful comments, however, I believe that to be in this industry you need to be able to step back and understand the world of trolls and to just delete anything hateful and move on.  

For me being an "influencer" is a side hobby to my day job! Creating is something I've always loved and being an influencer allows me to do this for myself! 

Instagram definately has the potential to be highly negative on one's mental health. I believe staying grounded in the real world and keeping it purely business allows me to be present in day to day and not look to the validation or comparison.  

I am very aware that no matter a person's status we are all human. I also have worked in advertising for years so understand the behind the scenes to the perfect image.
@e.s.j.a.y

Influencer 2. 

Being in the social media world, it can be quite challenging because you have to seem as if you have everything together or that your life is always perfect and people tend to have expectations - high expectations - from you. Numbers are such a great factor when you’re on social media. Even if influencers say that numbers don’t matter, it just always does. The number of likes, followers, subscribers and etc. you have matters because that’s one important factor in our job. However, for me, social media hasn’t affected my mental health all that much as I only post whenever and whatever I want. I don’t pressure myself to put up content I don’t want to post/make. Yes, some people unfollow me for not posting every day but what can I do. Yes, it’s sad when I see the number decrease but I just don’t let it get to me.  

The bad side about being an influencer is that you’re pressured to always look pretty because if not, people will throw shade at you for looking different in real life and on Instagram. Also, every action you do matters because you’re in the public’s eye so you have to be cautious A WHOLE EXTRA LOT. However, being an influencer also has its advantages. I get to make new friends ALL OVER THE WORLD like how cool is that! I also get paid to do the “job” I don’t even really see as a job since I just love doing it so much. And lastly, I get to share my voice on important causes since I have the platform to do so.
@micahsibayan

End results about the experience: 

In conclusion, I noticed that both the micro users and the influencers experience the same amount of pressure, however, depending on what your account is based around such as music or self-love, then the pressure can vary as you are targeting different audiences/people with different attitudes and expectations. It was interesting to find out about how the influencers feel. I was even featured on one of the girls I interviewed stories where she said that I was the first person who messaged her about her mental health. This shows that it isn't a very brought up topic and isn't being discussed a lot.