#instafluencers

I also watch lets play channels sometimes when I want to see gameplay of base/city builders before getting them. So it gets easy to see when a game is paying to be advertised bc youtube becomes a wall of Every Single Gaming Channel You've Ever Touched having the same thumbnail picture this week. The safest bet there is waiting a month and seeing how many channels made it a series that lasted and not one or two eps before we're back to Rimworld

Yeah that's-- another level of the Everything Is Ads, Influencer Culture thing. Sometimes there's an account I follow that I'd been sort of like.... I mean, parasocial relationships right, but I'd sort of mentally labeling them as a kind of peer/mentor, right? like not that we're close but that this is someone kinda on my level, but who knows a few more things, so i can take pointers from what they do, and share my results, and have a kind of like, peer-ish kind of relationship, though I'm usually aware that's aspirational on my part as I do my crafts so sparsely and seldom, so much of my free time being taken up in writing and like you know losing huge swathes of time to being ADHD or whatever--

and then they rock up with a paid promotion, or something, and I'm like oh neverminnnnd.

(Often it's like. A whole post about a project they did, and it looks so good! and wow! it was cheap! and then they're like Obligatory Disclosure! I was given these materials for free in exchange for my crafting a very labor-intensive thing out of them that I could then show off or ahem I mean my honest review! here's a coupon code to get your own!)

Can't Relate, guys. It's not like I'll unfollow or whatever necessarily.... but it's really. Well, it's hard. And I mean I'm usually glad for them, to have some kind of support or whatever, but boy it is always about the hustle isn't it.

But really what I’m objecting to is just this-- normalization of constant consumption. It’s so hard, when you struggle with impulsivity especially I think but I also really feel like Whomst Among Us Does Not-- you’re like no, it’s not normal to constantly want new things, and you’re disciplined with yourself, and try to really only buy things you’ll use or that you’ll really get enjoyment from, and then.... these social media personalities that you’ve got these parasocial relationships with and think of yourself as a peer with are just constantly acquiring