ONLINE INFLUENCERS ARE CORRUPTING WHAT IS “NORMAL”

 ONLINE INFLUENCERS ARE CORRUPTING WHAT IS “NORMAL”

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

 

 

Most parents have a love and hate affair with online media. They intuitively are concerned with the impact of computer games, music lyrics, movies and online personalities that their children are exposed to without their personal approval. Yet, they are between a rock and a hard place. 

At least their children are safe in their homes, or are they?

 

Often conscientious parents attempt to monitor what the child is doing on the Internet, but it is virtually impossible to do this effectively. The reality is the child becomes more sophisticated in navigating the Internet and is being educated by peers as to the more popular, provocative child sites. On these platforms their minds are more often altered by “influencers” that are beyond the parental knowledge and experience. 

 

Today’s parents love their child as much as any other generation. The difference for them is time. They have little time to devote to their own children after meeting all their professional and domestic obligations. This leaves many parents exhausted and unenthusiastic about life. To disguise their lack of devotion to their children modern parents tend to appease them instead of instructing them. They choose to deflect problem issues by stressing conciliation instead of confronting them until a comprehensive solution is developed.

 

Often parents have less power to train their children how to act than do today’s online “influencers.” These influential individuals are unusual people who stand out specifically because they are outside the norm. Influencers attract youngsters and young adults because they act and appear different than most of their peers. James Charles is an American Internet personality. He is the first male ambassador for Cover Girl Makeup on his YouTube channel. He is an Internet “influencer” along with Ian Jeffries: Instagram pop star, Katie Perry: pop singer and many others known to most youngsters that spend their time sneaking onto their electronic devices to be “cool.”

 

The “influencer” is a “people person,” friendly, unusual, outgoing, who enjoys being the center of attention. These “influencers” are outside the norm of normal behavior. They have to be unusual to capture the attention and interest of their young followers. Their “schtick” is to be almost absurd but not cross the line of being a total freak. Just freaky and intriguing enough to be followed by millions of youngsters. 

 

Most circuses have been “cancelled” by animal rights and other activists. The unusual circus people: the giant, fat lady, tattooed lady, midget or other freaky individuals are gone. These individuals were interesting due to their unusualness. They stretched the boundaries of what was normal. Now the absence of the circus has been replaced by YouTube bizarre videos and unique, strange influencers. 

 

These Internet personalities should be a concern for every parent who have traditionally been the most influential people in raising their children. One of the most important function of the parent was to teach the child what conformed to normal and what was outside the boundaries. This helped the child better navigate the real world and unite with a number of others. The understanding and appreciation of behaviors in particular situations was one of the primary responsibilities of the parents. This assisted the children to be seen as fully functioning adults.

 

The 1960 cultural revolution, schools relaxed standards, Hollywood’s sexualizing movies and television and social media have blurred and transformed our moral values and expectations. Currently added to this list are the Internet influencers who are targeting one of the most vulnerable groups in our society, youngsters. 

 

Most young children are vulnerable to famous, young Internet super-stars. They are easily directed to follow the directives of the “star.” Many of their young viewers believe it is the perfect path for them to follow for their own future. These youngsters already are addicted to the Internet, playing games and think they potentially will be paid millions of dollars for living their dream. The problem is few will develop a platform that has sufficient number of followers to provide an income based on 3-5 cents for each view. These over-inflated-ego youngsters have an unrealistic view of their future.

 

Yet these influencers could never have had an impact on these youngsters without their parent’s complicity. The parents have to be more demanding of children to contribute to the family and face reality head-on to learn life’s lessons. Only by being educated in pragmatism can our children learn what is realistic and what is fantasy. 

 

Parents: do your job and bring back reality! The earlier you start, the better for your child’s future.

 

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a recent book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.