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Having Influence

The fact that influencer marketing exists speaks to our collective willingness to sign up to a Ponzi scheme. It's no different from pyramid selling schemes. It may feel a bit more direct with people are directly responding to the influencer's vote in deciding what to buy or not. But it has to be a bit more complex than that. The far away and remote celebrity influencer gets the status in a person's life because people much closer home that they look up to are signaling that this influencer is on-trend and someone to follow.

They in turn might pick their cues from those that are level up on the social pecking order and so forth. In the end it is a pyramid scheme even though everyone down to the lowest level hears the megaphone equally loud. That could be misleading and it can lead to this false notion that there is some direct line with the influencer which may have lead to the tragedy at the Astroworld festival this story cites. That and as the author cites, the desire to have an immersive experience with physical and virtual worlds melding. 

Generally having influence would be a positive if used wisely, to bring about large scale change for the better, but that is not where this power is being deployed. It has become a marketer's tool and they decide where and how to use it to maximize financial gain.

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