Influencer ethics

HarveyMushman I think you miss the wider point here Harvey. The current crop of millennials are growing up in a fantasy world that is driven by them not being able to make any decisions for themselves without consulting social media or their phones. The growth of the internet over the last 20 years…….is it a good thing or a bad thing? We now have AI to deal with. Did you know that there are hundreds of AI models on sites like Only Fans……stupid kids are paying millions of dollars a month for computer generated porn and photos. They cannot get to work or function without their morning skinny, full fat, latte cappuccion without milk but with chocolate sprinkles. They spend as much on a phone and internet signal as it takes to insure an average car. All this is fuelled by the latetst trend in influencers…….just take the name ‘influencer’, what does it mean and why do I need to be influenced in order to form an opinion on something?

Hats off to anyone who is smart enough to make a living in their chosen environment, but can anyone explain to me why that wan4er Lineker is the BBC’s highest paid star for reading an autocue once a week. Why is Naga Munchetty paid reportedly £400k for reading an autocue……..it is plain and simply total madness

HarveyMushman If you have not seen this, it really makes a good point!

The internet has single Handley destroyed the world
Society is worse off because of it

Don’t get me wrong it’s the most powerful tool on the planet, but social media is a sickness

As a species we are preyed upon by these companies. We’re a battery/cash cow now

YouTube ads have gone ballistic now, Amazon has adverts, Disney introducing them

And living in the real world is so expensive the cheapest way to live is to stay home

If I could live in the woods and not meet another person again I’d be quite happy.

dfk41 Her content was lost on me as I was focusing on her eyes and the inflammation in the corners, almost as if she is wearing contacts that she really should stop wearing (or wearing them far too long) before she goes blind. There’s something majorly bad going on there.

The other thing which detracted from the message was the lips, because they are constantly moving, I was mesmerised by the amount of filler inside them.

That said, I really did enjoy the video for about 6 minutes until I got bored of the whinging!

HarveyMushman I don’t really get the hate for them. Some are making enormous sums of money in a difficult financial climate in a role probably seen by many as very easy. Perhaps that’s the root of other’s disdain.

It really comes across as just old men upset that ‘influencers’ have a lot more influence than they do because forums are a relic of the old internet and the much larger social media apps are full of young people that don’t care about the gatekeepers on places like here.

I mean it’s just constant, if a YouTuber gets mentioned you’ll instantly see accusations of ’they’re only in it for the money’, ’you can’t trust what they say’, ’they’re just QVC salesman’ - give it a rest! 😂

It’s evolved

Call it a forum or call it reddit or discord

Same thing

I rarely watch review video now, I watch stuff that interests me, usually doesn’t Inc selling.

There are very few coffee products that genuinely interest me now.

whinmoor85 It really comes across as just old men upset that ‘influencers’ have a lot more influence than they do because forums are a relic of the old internet and the much larger social media apps are full of young people that don’t care about the gatekeepers on places like here.

That’s not true at all. I don’t like seeing people wilfully misled. As for here, it’s a non commercial sanctuary for those who find such things useful. This place is whatever you all make it..

How many YouTubers call themselves influencers and how many get called an influencer.

YouTube has a lot of rubbish on it but the beauty is that you can vote with your feet, if you don’t like it then you don’t have to watch. You can also make your feelings immediately known in the comments. There’s also a lot of fantastic niche content on YouTube that the likes of the BBC etc would never make, if someone can make that content and make a living off it then fair play to them .

When it comes to answering Tom’s question, I think you just have to be as open and honest as possible. Engage with your viewers, listen to feedback and probably grow a thick skin because there will always be some idiots.

Dusk There is more to it than that though. The true ‘influencers’ are not always stand out people. The modern person seems to have grasped and be willing to accept the role that people like this play. I doubt if coffee is any different to guitars in that people have sprung up to dazzle you with their knowledge, or lack of it in order to make a living. Affiliate links abound and it just seems that talentless people can make a living on YT peddling nonsense. but quite often well produced nonsense. I quite agree that there is some very good content available, but then there is the other side. Unfortunately, not enough people do vote with their feet

Cuprajake There are still ways to block the adverts Jake.

dfk41 Crickey, where do I start? If a newbie came on here, as often happens for advice for their first machine, and the collective opinion on here was go watch Lance or any of the commercial interest based influencers, then the forum would soon die. We have a wealth of knowledge on here amongst some very experienced people. @DavecUK has a YouTube channel. It is not monetised which means no one can stop him from saying what he wants. The YT influencer lives in a little world where the sun, constantly revolves on its axis in its orbit around the earth…….they dare not say negative things or the orbit will soon dry up. You learn more from the people by what they do not say than from what they do.

If a coffee manufacturer brings a new machine to the market, how do they get the message across? Do they advertise on radio or tv? No, they contact people on YT, give them a machine and a nod and a wink later it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

If that is the world in which you want to live, then god help the rest of us!

Right on cue 🙄

whinmoor85 I mean it’s just constant, if a YouTuber gets mentioned you’ll instantly see accusations of ’they’re only in it for the money’, ’you can’t trust what they say’, ’they’re just QVC salesman’ - give it a rest! 😂

whinmoor85 It really comes across as just old men upset that ‘influencers’ have a lot more influence than they do because forums are a relic of the old internet and the much larger social media apps are full of young people that don’t care about the gatekeepers on places like here.

Or, you could bear in mind that some folk on forums have been making & studying coffee making since before the latest crop of YT influencers. So when they say something that is known to be wrong, or don’t attribute proper credits, we can point it out here, rather then be ignored in the unfathomable ocean of comments on their YT channel.

If you come on here and say you have invented the wheel, you’ll get some push back, On YT you can delete, or switch off comments, or wait for them to drop off the bottom of the page.

When people mislead you, whether by accident, or intent, would you not rather be aware? (If not, there is the ‘ignore’ button.)

I personally don’t see any evidence that people who have discovered James Hoffmann’s coffee content are particularly young, the people who have mentioned it to me, unprompted, are my sort of age (not young).

There’s plenty of useful info that influencer’s could be putting out - and some do…there’s no backlash from old men, because there is nothing to criticise.

Ask yourself, other than which of the latest bits & bobs that are being released, that you might want to buy, what have you really learned from the YT influencers? (I have learned not to plunge French presses and that preheating my drip cone can intensify the flavour…great stuff to know (thanks to Mr Hoffmann), but it’s not a lot to show for how many weekly videos from a dozen or so folk, over 5 years is it?).

dfk41 yeah but I’m clueless 🤣🤣

I cant’ like the way some “influencers” does realize their contents, but no one pointed me a gun to believe their opinions.

I can eventually advice others about a non correct information, but the final decision is not mine.

Good for us there are forum like here where passionate or newbie can share their opinions.

Cuprajake Yep spot on as I can’t begin to count how often I see people living in front of a screen… they just have to be involved with YT, TT, FB, IG, etc. every hour of every day. They just have to check in, tag someone, walk across busy streets looking down and so on. Take away that and the majority of the population would be lost and dumbed down instantly. Take away the financial compensation from sites and things would really scramble.