It doesn’t take long after opening TikTok or Instagram before someone is trying to sell you something. Almost immediately, as you open social media, advertisements begin to pop up on your feed, promoting products that you no longer feel can be trustworthy.
Social media used to be a place where influencers shared and promoted products they genuinely liked, but now it has become harder to trust whether a product is truly worth buying or just a part of a marketing trend.
Tiktok especially, is starting to become more like a marketplace, rather than entertainment. With the TikTok Shop feature, creators are able to link products directly in their videos and earn money when people purchase them.
Of course, many small businesses can benefit from this, but it has also encouraged many influencers to promote certain products just because they can profit from them.
Influencers usually promote the same viral products at the same time, over and over again to maximize the amount of money they can earn. But now, seeing these promotional videos all the time, post after post, it has begun to feel repetitive and scripted; it’s hard not to feel skeptical about whether or not the creators truly like the product.
An anonymous student expressed their experience with TikTok Shop and other social media marketing platforms. “For many makeup influencers I’ve seen, it doesn’t feel like their reactions to the product are genuine, since they are usually overexaggerating a lot”.
With many posts now tied to commissions and TikTok Shop links, it seems like every other video includes some sort of promotion.
One day it might be a skincare product, the next a mini vacuum or kitchen gadget that suddenly everyone “can’t live without”.
Without all that marketing, social media was once a place for expressing personal feelings and emotions. There was once a sense of trust between influencers and viewers who shared honest recommendations.
People have shifted to TikTok precisely to avoid being recipients of the fraudulent and insincere traditional advertisements on television; however, even trustworthy ads on the platform are slowly starting to fade as well.
At the same time, many users who follow and admire the digital influencers still trust them over traditional advertisements, because of that human connection.
Influencer marketing has the benefit of directly connecting with its audience, increasing the probability of the viewers purchasing a product. It’s so easy nowadays to buy a product; all it takes is one click.
While not every creator is dishonest, though, the ones who promote products just for profit can cause viewers to continuously fall victim to buying things that just end up being a waste of money.
“Many people are purchasing [influencers’] items because of the power that they hold on the opinions of their audience,” said Junior Mia Golia. “I believe that many people will purchase simply because of the people who are telling them that they should.”
Social media should be a place for honest entertainment and legitimacy. If even these platforms are turning into billboards or prime-time television spots, what will be left of true entertainment? Sure, occasionally promoting something that you feel truly attached to or one that can actually be beneficial won’t do much harm. But overloading social media platforms with marketing content and false promotions just for the purpose of earning money, is not a practice we should continue in our society.