{"id":82237,"date":"2022-05-12T12:20:33","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T16:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=82237"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:09","slug":"dark-side-social-media-influencing","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/dark-side-social-media-influencing\/","title":{"rendered":"The dark side of social media influencing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n The dark side of social media influencing\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

This article is republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you follow influencers on social media? Do you always check their posts? Do you find you’re spending too much time or becoming obsessed with checking influencers’ accounts? And when you can’t check in, do you feel disconnected or lost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you answered yes<\/em> to all of these questions, you may have whats known as \u201cproblematic engagement\u201d with social media influencers<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don’t blame yourself too much. You are among the many who have been swept away by dazzling social media influencing<\/a>. And this can be attributed to many features and tactics social media influencers employ that help keep them influential \u2014 like livestreams and polls on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As experts in social media and user behaviour, we recently published a paper that looks at followers’ problematic engagement with influencers on social media<\/a>. Our paper is among the first to study which aspects of social media influencing may lead to followers’ problematic engagement. It is important to examine this context considering the significant volume and revenues of social media influencing \u2014 it’s a US$13.8 billion industry<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue of problematic engagement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the age of social media, most people know of or follow some social media influencers. Social media influencers are<\/a> users who have a significant number of followers<\/a> with established credibility<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you are a fashion fan or want information on health and fitness \u2014 there’s an influencer to follow. And followers often gravitate towards them for their authenticity and content creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n