Fashionistas: True influencers or a damaging influence

In their role as influencers and marketers, their social media accounts are often launchpads or promotion platforms for goods and services.

Debates and discussions are rife in the local community about the impact of social media influencers - particularly fashionistas - on their followers, which are staggeringly high in number, reaching hundreds of thousands and sometimes even millions.
Influencers are everywhere now, even fast replaced traditional media as a means of reaching out to target audiences, but the meteoric rise of these social media VIPs are also a cause of worry to certain segments of society, as they wonder about the actual influence these online stars have over their followers.
Concerns increasingly being voiced across the country carry a worried and warning tone about the hold of these new social media players and their impact over the minds of the young. Fashionistas, for instance are held with displaying certain practices that is bothering some people.
In their role as influencers and marketers, their social media accounts are often launchpads or promotion platforms for goods and services.
Khaleej Times takes an instaview on the issue, speaking to local experts and writers.
What the stats say
Studies point out that fashionistas have a great impact on the average follower, primarily of a socio-economic and promotional nature. One study released by Dubai-based PR agency BPG Cohn & Wolfe last year showed that 71 per cent of UAE residents aged 18-40 are happy to take advice online before making purchases.
Beauty, fashion and food are the areas where residents are most likely to turn to leading social media influencers for recommendations, say the results of the research undertaken for the agency by YouGov, which interviewed 1,000 men and women across the country.
The research study also revealed that tech-savvy residents used their smartphones to follow their favourite influencers, with 68 per cent of those polled admitting that where they eat out can be prompted by online recommendations or reviews, and 63 per cent more likely to buy fashion or beauty products based on what influencers might say.
In the context of the local society, these factors are prompting people to wonder about the character of these persons who promote restaurants, clothes and beauty products in exchange for money or paid advertising. Another concern is the influence of them on youngsters, who long to emulate their lifestyles and ape them blindly.
Many local influencers are in fact, not based in the UAE, promote an absolute opennes in their lifestyles - throwing open their homes and private lives on social media - and project an image of a high-end, enviable life that many aspire for.
Paid advertising or promotional posts might even be taken as a commercial or business transaction for these influencers; the larger worry concerns their promotion - in certain instances - of unlicensed cosmetic products and medical drugs. Competent authorities are now being asked to keep an eye on these 'promotions' on social media.
Where does social media stand?
There's an added angle when voicing these issues, because the position of social media in the larger scheme of things makes it complicated. Any social media network is a free space, and users might be based out of any GCC country or outside of it, where the laws differ from that of the UAE. Yet, irrespective of geographical boundaries, the influencers' reach and hold over their users remains the same. This is again due to the fluid, boundary-less nature of social media.
Khalid Al Suwaidi, a writer and columnist known for his critical commentary on this "unhealthy phenomenon", says that many social media influencers often make cultural mistakes and detrimental mistakes with their posts, when seen in the context of the local culture and sensibilities.
Al Suwaidi, who is campaigning through his articles against blindly following and aping fashionistas, said that women are much more susceptible to the negative impact, as they want to imitate these fashion figures and their lives. "The Emirati youth follow these influencers, driven by curiosity or fun, but girls are particularly prone to imitating them, especially in aspects of rebellion against society, its customs and traditions. Influencers also tend to paint a picture of society that doesn't reflect reality," he said.
"The problem flares up when government entities and other sectors take interest in this category of social media stars, who are then hired to promote events, and thus garner a lot of interest and attention. This drives young people - especially girls - to ape them in the hope they might get some amount of limelight and attention too," he noted, adding that influencers are often offered huge financial remuneration for the publicity and promotion of products.
He stressed for the need to monitor these fashionistas' practices, as well as to raise awareness among the young about the kind of 'false images' and aspirational lifestyles being portrayed online. Al Suwaidi went so far as to criticise some who made posts calling for positivity and feigning humility and modesty in the manner, but spread negative aspects and influences in reality.
Parents are being called upon to bear the responsibility of directing their children to the right path, but Al Suwaidi said some parents in fact play the opposite role, trying to take photos of their children posing with these fashionistas, unaware that the kids are being adversely influenced by them.
Projecting the unreal
Mona Al Raisi, editor-in-chief of Akhbar Al Dar News on Sharjah TV, said most fashionistas want to show they are from a wealthiest strata of society through the images they post, which don't necessarily reflect their real life. She attributed this show-off culture to inferiority complexes and some other social reasons.
"These fashionistas make a fortune at the expense of media outlets, which interview them in big programmes and important forums," Al Raisi noted.
Fashionistas have been widely criticised for giving unauthentic and unreliable information and talking about medical and life-related issues. This may adversely affect their followers.
Rabab Jebara, a journalist, said that social media in the UAE is heavily influencing conventional media. The government bodies, she said, in turn take advantage of such social media platforms to promote their services and communicate with customers. On the fashionista phenomenon, Jebara pointed out that their appearance and rise is "natural and was expected. "It is the trend of the entire generation, and should be reasonably and rationally dealt with."
Referring to National Media Council's (NMC) role in "moderating" the influence of these fashionistas, Jebara said that the NMC has a role to play in this regard. The council ought to watch over the fashionistas, especially when they promote certain businesses and products. She pointed out that promotion rules that are applicable to conventional media must also apply on social media, because the social media accounts of fashionistas are not merely personal accounts anymore, they are a platform for posting advertisements in exchange for financial reward.
Some fashionistas are paid an average of Dh50,000 for each ad they post. Others are paid on an hourly basis when they promote events, with the most famous ones even getting between Dh15,000-100,000 per hour.
Jebara made it plain that some fashionistas promote noble values and one should be picky about whom to followed. Snapchat, for example, is like a TV channel, and she questions parents if they would allow their children to watch indecent TV channels?
Poet of sensations case
A recent court ruling by the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals banned an Emirati poet - convicted of violating the cybercrime law for posting a poem that violated society's norms and traditions online - from using social media for a period of two years.
The man, known as the 'Poet of Sensations', was found guilty of violating the cybercrime law and breaching public order and morality. The court also maintained a three-month jail sentence and a fine of Dh250,000 be handed down to the man.
As per the cybercrime law, use of technology in committing such crimes is subject to stiff penalties.

Statistics

71% of UAE residents aged 18-40 are happy to take advice online before making purchases
63% of respondents of a survey are likely to buy fashion or beauty products based on what influencers say
68% of residents admit that where they eat out can be prompted by online recommendations or reviews
malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com 

• UAE

Mustafa Al Zarooni

malzarooni@khaleejtimes.com