Social media use has exploded over the past decade and with it, a new form of publishing called ‘influencing’ has emerged. This is when an individual builds a community of fans and followers online around their content topics and styles. There are influencers for every type of niche hobby, interest and demographic out there, from knitting to gaming. What started out as a way of people making content for fun has become a hugely lucrative business all across the globe.
On the face of it, these influencers are providing people with free content that meets their interests, and in most cases, help them feel included and a part of a community that might not be in easy reach in their everyday life.
One of the most toxic things about the influencing phenomenon is the way it distorts reality. It’s only natural for people to want to present the best side of themselves, but influencers often filter their faces, use effects to change the shape of their bodies and portray a very lavish and luxurious lifestyle.
When we compare ourselves to these altered realities without knowing what’s actually gone into creating those images and videos, it can create unhealthy comparisons. This is hard enough for adults to keep reminding themselves, but for kids and teenagers, it can be a real struggle to keep perspective.
If your child has a particular influencer that they love to watch, it’s always a good idea to ask how it makes them feel, and to explain to them what might have been altered in the content to make it ‘look better’ than real life. Another area of social media that can be really toxic are the comment sections. Social media has given everyone the opportunity to wade into conversations and debates. And, while free speech is a great thing, the ease of anonymity can lead to trolling, which fuels some pretty awful online arguments. Social media is designed to be addictive. From the algorithms that feed you more content that you enjoy, to the reward system of comments and likes for content you post, it’s always finding new ways to draw you back in. Filters, body altering software and portraying a lavish and fun-filled life isn’t real life and for many young people, seeing these images can give them a distorted idea of what they ‘should’ look like, be achieving and have in their lives. Before social media, if a child was excluded from a friend’s party or other social event, they might not find out about it. With social media there’s a constant window into everyone’s lives, and if someone is having fun and you’re not, it can lead to a lot of self-doubt and anxiety. With the rise of social media, bullies have found new ways to hurt their victims. Spreading rumors, harassing people, and sharing nasty content are all ways in which bullies can attack others. The negative effects this has on children’s wellbeing are obviously negative.
As we all know Ishita Gupta became a first hand target of such toxic social media stalking when recently actor Kangana Ranaut went on to bash the Gen Z for no apparent reason. Although Ishita handled the situation very maturely soon after she noticed a group of influencers that seem rather “influenced” by her lifestyle and clothing choices started copying her styles off her brands. In the UK if found guilty of copyright infringement in a magistrate’s court, your business could be fined up to £50,000 and you could face a jail term of up to six months. Similarly in India the minimum punishment for infringement of copyright is imprisonment for six months with the minimum fine of Rs. 50,000/-. In the case of a second and subsequent conviction the minimum punishment is imprisonment for one year and fine of Rs. one lakh.
Influencer Uorfi Javed who is known for her bizzare fashion sense always needs something to grab people’s eye balls and went on to the extent of blindly stealing designs off Ishita’s brand ISIVIS. Not only this, other fellow influencers that have graced Salman Khan’s reality show Big Boss have also jumped into this category of influencers heavily influenced by one’s achievements and have started copying Ishita and following her family and friends. Although Ishita seems to be unbothered as she understands the obsession of her fans in disguise with her lifestyle and fashion choices, which comes naturally to her owing to her professional merits and achievements, as a young entrepreneur that is aware of her intellectual property rights, Ishita came to the conclusion to take her private life and her textile business venture offline to protect herself from copyright infringements. She doesn’t intent to sue anyone in courts which can tarnish one’s image hence it’s a mature decision on her part to take the venture more likely to face copyright infringement offline as she decided to sell offline.
Although there might be some marketing challenges that might come with this, Ishita is a level headed and wise entrepreneur who makes decisions keeping in consideration of the consequences towards her community. Every passing day, Ishita Gupta just emerges as a phoenix and conquers all her challenges ever so casually and it’s a quality that’s quite remarkable for a young woman.
