ugh, i keep getting recommended some video about the commodification of philosophy that features philosophytube in the thumbnail and identifies her as an influencer in the title and im just like... ???? people realize that "influencer" and "internet personality" aren't synonyms, right????? like, i feel like a pretty big component of "influencer" is branding, but not just any branding - because frankly, any artist who wants to make a living has to build a brand in some form in current society, especially those who rely on social media to find their audience. "influencers" are people whose brands rely entirely on their own life (or at least, what they show to the public). like, say what you will about the parasociality of being a popular video essayist, but at the end of the day that's still creating a piece of work that can be separated to a certain degree from it's author.
anyways this is is also reminding me to get around to making a post about how im growing increasingly convinced that "parasocial relationships" are best defined as being the relationship between an author/authors and audiences.