Well, I’m down to my last three bedroom projects and it’s DONE! I still need to cover the attic access, paint the side table (which I’ve already done but I don’t like the color) and paint the outlet covers. Then I’ll probably take some time tomorrow to make sure everything is finished, maybe do a few paint touch-ups if needed, and take my final pictures which I’ll share with you on Monday. I can’t believe I’m finally so close to the finish line on this huge bedroom suite project that I’ve been working on for over a year!
So in the meantime, I want to share with you what I’ve been listening to lately to keep myself entertained while I work. While I’m working, I’m always listening to something, be it a podcast or a YouTube video. I never listen to music. I like stories and information.
Anyway, during my break at the end of last year, I watched a few episodes of a YouTube channel I follow. The woman’s name is Hannah Alonzo and I have been following her for some time. Her channel started with her making videos about her anti-MLM (multi-level marketing) stance and how these MLM companies are all about money and rarely about quality products or caring about the people who actually put their lives into selling those products. I’ve never looked into MLMs myself, but I found the content interesting because I see so many influencers signing up and using their social media accounts to sell these products. It was interesting to look into the companies and how they actually operate from her perspective and the perspective of the people who write to her and share their experiences.
But then, in addition to the anti-MLM content, Hannah started doing a series about Influencer Insanity. This content really interested me because it’s something I’m very frustrated about myself, and I’ve even written about it here on my blog at least once in the past. In fact, just late last year I wrote a post about how the world of “influencers” has made me not believe anyone who tries to sell me anything because it seems all about how many products they sell and how much money they can make, and many of them sell poor quality products when they can make money from it.
What I didn’t realize (because I basically live in my own little bubble and don’t spend much time on TikTok or Instagram) is how crazy so many of these “influencers” have become. The craziest things seem to be on TikTok, and that’s not really my world. But I’m telling you that after falling down this rabbit hole, I wouldn’t trust a single person trying to sell me stuff on TikTok.
Anyway, after watching several of Hannah’s Influencer Insanity videos, YouTube started suggesting other channels and videos on the same topic because that’s how the algorithm works. And that’s when I came across Kiki Chanel. Her channel covers the same topics – anti-MLM and the crazy world of social media influencers. I seriously can’t get enough of these videos and listen/watch them in complete disbelief at what this world of “influence” has become.
The bottom line is that it has led to insane overconsumption for the sole purpose of content creation. If you want a glimpse into this world, a good place to start is Episode 14 of Hannah’s Influencer Insanity, titled “TikTok’s Beauty Overconsumption Crisis Is Out Of Control.” I mean, just take a look at this person’s skincare collection…
It’s just drawers and drawers and drawers filled with skin care products. How can one person use all of this? You need to use a product for at least a few weeks to see if it actually works for you. So there is no way anyone can use everything and give an honest review of the product. And yet, she’s a skin care product content creator trying to promote these products to other people so she can make money from the sales. This is really crazy. And just the amount of money spent on these products that all have an expiration date is crazy to me! A large portion of it will inevitably end up in the trash as the shelf life is long before you can use it.
Here’s another screenshot of a person with a “skincare room” full of products. I mean, just look at all of these products! How on earth can you take seriously a recommendation from a person who clearly hasn’t used any of these products long enough to know if they’re effective? And who in the world needs a room dedicated solely to skincare products? This is simply consumption for the purpose of creating content and selling products.
And here’s another screenshot from the video of someone unboxing over 40 brand new razors and hanging them on their shower wall. Why on earth does anyone need a “razor collection”? Who buys 40 razors at once? Content creators, of course! And who benefits from this content?
Kiki also made a video on this topic, and here’s a screenshot of a woman who dedicated an entire closet and part of her living room to storing her shower products. And here, too, it’s all about creating content and selling products. She will never be able to use all of these products!
It’s all just over-consumption for the purpose of creating content and selling products. It’s really reached the point of insanity. And the problem is that many of these content creators have millions of followers, so they feed these overconsumption videos as their regular social media diet, and watching overconsumption fuels the desire to overconsume.
Anyway, these “influencer madness” videos really opened my eyes to a world that I knew was out there, but because I don’t spend a lot of time online and in that world, I didn’t realize how crazy it really had become. I want this whole “influencer” culture to go away. I want people to get back to sharing real, genuine, useful information instead of looking for every opportunity to sell products to make money or create silly content just to make money from creating content.
And just to show you that you need to be suspicious of literally ALL influencers, let me quickly tell you a crazy story. I don’t remember the name of this particular influencer, but she is very popular in the online health and wellness space for sharing her own weight loss journey after having children. She wanted to lose her baby weight, so she got serious about diet and exercise and shared her diet and exercise plan with her followers. And because she seemed so authentic and had great success, she had a huge online fan base.
She then began selling her diet and exercise plan so that others could follow her plan and presumably achieve the same successful results as her. And she made a lot of money selling these plans. I believe there was an option to purchase a plan once or join a monthly coaching program. Anyway, she made a lot of money selling her plan.
Now it turns out that not only was she using her diet and exercise plan, but she was also using a GLP-1 like Ozempic. And she never felt the need to share this important information with her followers until she was on a GLP-1 for ONE YEAR. So while she sold her diet and exercise program to people who desperately wanted and hoped to have the same success that she had with that program, she thought it was perfectly fine to make all this money off people without mentioning that she had a secret tool in her own life that could help her lose weight.
And the crazy thing is that when she finally made a video reporting that she had been on a GLP-1 for a year, she still didn’t seem to understand that what she had done was completely shady and dishonest. She didn’t actually understand why people were so angry. I mean, it’s like some of these people have no conscience at all. They will do whatever it takes to sell you products so they can make money from you, with honesty and ethics in mind. It just blows me away. Kiki made a video about this woman, you can see it here.
So that’s been my guilty conscience lately. I just can’t get enough of seeing how crazy the whole “influencing” world has become. I really hope that Hannah and Kiki’s channels and videos will go a long way in putting an end to this whole “influencer” culture. But in the meantime, I’m going to indulge in this guilty pleasure and watch every video they release on the subject because it’s all very entertaining, even as insane as it is.
And I have another recommendation. As I was going down this whole rabbit hole of social media influencer madness, the YouTube algorithm also brought me another video about this woman named Elizabeth Teckenbrock, who was gaining a large following on TikTok and exposing her abusive ex-husband. At first, everyone who heard her story rallied around her and supported her. And then the truth was revealed. She was (and still is) a fraudster who lied about her cancer more than once, founded a fraudulent charity, repeatedly deceived and manipulated people, and most notably defrauded a man out of a million dollars with her claims that she had cancer and other health problems.
There’s a podcast about her called eLIESabeth, and I finished the entire podcast in two days. While I was building and upholstering the base of our bed, I heard the following. You can find the podcast here.
So be careful out there. Don’t fall into the trap of these influencers and scammers.
