They are called "influencers" because the ghouls that work in marketing realised that they are an extremely effective tool for their ongoing psychological warfare arms race

Worst of all is that I don't even know how to find realistic reviews for things, like smartphones, anymore - all the reviewers seem to have become "influencers" and lie to your face like "people say that this happens, but I never saw it". Bullsh!t you didn't, when it happens to basically everyone:-(. (even if the phone manufacturer sent them a souped-up item that actually works, the influencer is still collaborating with them, knowing that that will happen)

It is easy to cure ignorance, simply with knowledge, but how do we get around misinformation now, without spending the time to become personal experts on every tiny aspect of life these days?

Late-stage capitalism sucks skibidi toilet :-(.

They influence a horde of followers to buy shit or click ads. They're a middle-man for parasites.

It's so strange to hear people calling themselves an influencer, like they're bragging about their ability to psychologically manipulate people (whether to sell the shit they're being paid to pretend to like, or just for good old power tripping)

I'd say you have that backwards

Influencer is the word companies use for people with a following, and therefore power over peoples buying decisions.

For some reason it's leaked and been misappropriated.

If you actually make something of value you are whatever that thing is, AND a potential influencer of buying decisions.

Many people who influenced me in my ways would punch the one who'd call them an influencer.

You heard it here first, Lemmy is where the normies hang out.

Mastodon/kbin: nerds, left-wingers and furries

Being a Mastodon user does not make me a nerd, left-winger furry.

I mean,

I am a left-winger furry nerd,

But not because I'm on Mastodon!

I feel like at least 70% of the tweets I get on Bluesky's Discover page are from trans people.
I'm not complaining, it's just interesting.
I wonder if it's an algorithm thing (I follow some trans users) or if Bluesky is simply where they all fled to after the Muskening.

Twitter has an annoyingly persistent hold out crew of lefties and furries as well. Which is a shame, because its cutting into the Bluesky/Mastodon content.

where's parler and tumblr and pillowfort

Don't say that around here. You'll get a thousand sycophants down your throat bleating "It'S ThE uSeR's ChOiCe!!!!" and that you're "against free speech" and "just as bad as Meta" if you want us to disconnect from them.

I'm with you, though. Meta is evil and we should not be doing business with them in any way. Any user who wants to make the "choice" to do business with Meta can do it using one of Meta's many own products instead.

Idk, man. If you look at countries currently experiencing lots of public uprisings and revolutionary organizing, they seem to be the ones with some of the least prolific digital media. Myanmar, northern India, and rural Bolivia all have terrible wifi.

Folks in "modern" nations like South Korea and Dubai and the UK are increasingly these NEET hermits with no friends or romantic partners or sense of collective good will who just fixate on online phantasm celebrities. Occasionally, one of them pops off and tries to murder a politician. But that's not revolutionary conduct.

Great idea, let's start a fight against 1 billion monthly users with our 50k.

I don't think they have downvotes for that matter.