CoSMI - 1.0.1.21 - Authenticity - True Self - don't change
2 Corinthians 10:12
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
When I say "don't change," I don't really mean it. It's impossible to stay the same: you're changing all the time. Everything you do affects you, generally speaking. Everything that you do teaches you something, so you are constantly learning, and therefore you are constantly changing. So it is impossible not to change.
What I really mean is, don't change just because you are or are becoming an influencer. Even that is impossible. As you are becoming an influencer, you are learning things, and therefore you are changing, but be careful how being an influencer is changing you. The first step, of course, is to know who you are. Therefore, keep on with the exercises and efforts to ensure that you do know yourself, and that you are aware of how you are changing while you are learning to be an influencer.
I suppose that the best way to illustrate what I am trying to point out here is to go whole hog and take the most extreme form of influencers. As far as I can tell, those who are doing the most outrageous things with regard to being an influencer on social media are those who are sharing how they live with their family. They are sharing how they do their parenting. They are sharenting, as one person put it.
Sharing tips and tricks about how to parent your children is quite okay. Parents have an extremely difficult job, and they can use all the help they can get. All of the valid tips and tricks that you can pass along to other parents is great, but that is not what sharenting does. Or, at least, that is not the only thing that it does.
For one thing, you are displaying your children. Your children don't have any choice in the matter. You, at least, had informed consent from yourself, and presumably your spouse, when you decided to go into the share-hunting business. You decided that you were going to give up your privacy in order to obtain celebrity and possibly an income, but your children don't have that choice. You didn't ask them if they wanted to be on social media all the time. You didn't ask them if they wanted to be filmed being born. You didn't ask them if they wanted to be filmed having their diapers changed or being bathed or just living their lives while you film them.
But the thing is, is it really their lives? Those family influencers who are at the top of the charts are known to bribe their children in order to play with the right toys that sponsors want to have filmed. The children no longer get to choose which toys they play with or which games they play, but have arbitrary restrictions imposed upon them, or at least are bribed to do so. If a child does something cute accidentally off camera, then maybe the child will have to re-do that for the camera. Possibly when the children are older, they might have some choice in the matter of whether or not they are going to participate. However, by this time, their lives have been molded by the fact that they are being filmed and are being presented. In some cases, these children have known no other lives. How can they be expected to make any kind of informed decision about whether or not they're going to be part of social media when they have never *not* been a part of social media?
Maybe you think you will never get to that point as an influencer. Maybe you think that the type of reviewing and opining that you do is on a much lower level, but are you really allowing social media to dictate aspects of your life? Do you really want to wear *those* particular clothes, or are they clothes that your sponsors want you to wear? Is this particular fashion one that you chose, or that somebody else chose for you? Can you really present your own opinions, honestly, when you know that sponsors may not send you anything more if you don't give a positive review for this particular product or service?
Be careful how you change yourself under social, and social media, pressures.
CoSMI series:
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2026/05/cosmi-00100-introduction-and-table-of.html
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