From Over-Saturated to Oversharing
Published on Feb. 25, 2025, at 3:11 p.m.
by Abby Cope.
As social media becomes steadily more prominent in the way our generation communicates and interacts, it evolves with market trends as well. What once was an over-saturated and picture perfect image influencers felt compelled to portray has transformed into raw, real relatability amongst online influencers. Whether it’s transparency about sponsored content or openness about one’s mental health, influencers today are a far cry from what was flooding online platforms a mere 10 years ago.
Less curated and more candid, this new wave of influencers has created a connection amongst viewers that just wasn’t there before. But how has this connectivity affected influencer marketing as a whole, and how long will it be before there’s a shift in the way influencers want to be perceived?
Though social media has been around since the late ’90s, it has truly taken center stage as far as communication standards in the last decade. Since 2010, social media users have increased by over 4 billion, a 440% increase. This extreme escalation into mainstreaming social media platforms has had lasting effects on the ways we market products, as well as ourselves.
The rise in usage of social media platforms has opened the doors to social media influencing becoming a more mainstream form of employment. Though the first influencers were identified in the early 2000s, they were heavily popularized in the 2010s. Content creators such as Alisha Marie, Niki and Gabi and Eva Gutowski were seen as visionaries in their peak around 2015. With their trendy outfits and constant splurges to lavish restaurants and vacations, these women were living out a teenager’s dream.
Pushing out perfectly curated content with professional makeup and houses that looked so clean they seemed too perfect to be lived in made waves on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. These polished morning routines and over-produced comedy videos set the standards for the then-ideal influencer. With aesthetically pleasing and seemingly flawless Instagram feeds and views topping out at numbers such as 51 million, it’s no secret young viewers began to idolize the content they were producing.
Basing one’s life off of content from a creator can be dangerous. Rather than being a blueprint to follow, influencers can be an inspiration instead, according to Dr. Shaheen Kanthawala, an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at The University of Alabama. She shared her advice to users who feel disheartened that their lives don’t measure up to those they follow online.
“It’s important to keep in mind that that is a job for them, and that is something that we as followers and viewers don’t think of all the time,” Kanthawala said. “Not to say they’re only doing this as a nine-to-five, then checking out, but this is their full-time career or pretty strong side hustle. They’re doing this as a job, and therefore putting in the time and effort just as you would if you’re on the job.
“If you think you are not meeting any aspect or benchmark that matches them, think of how you’re doing in your own career,” Kanthawala continued. “Just because someone has a full team to make a presentation look a certain way on social media, all of us don’t have access to that. I would remind people that this is their job, and they will work just as hard as you would at your job to do their best.”
Though the lifestyle this content portrayed may have been highly sought after, was it ever realistic? Years later in tell-all videos, users such as Marie are coming clean, claiming they spent hours editing content to come off as perfect and even lied about completing challenges or where they were living to fit a certain aesthetic. Such admissions prove that this content was unrealistic but gained traction due to its seemingly perfect appeal.
Strategy consultant and author of Belonging to the Brand Mark Schaefer has been an impactful force in the industry since 2012 and understands that trust is make or break in the influencing industry. In fact, one’s career depends on it entirely as an online personality.
“I think it is very simple: If there is no trust, there is no influencer success,” Schaefer explained. “There must be trust to create a brand. The influencers I’ve worked with are keenly aware of this. They know their audience well and will never let them down. If they break the trust, the career is ruined.”
Somewhere between then and now, influencers began showing their true colors, both in their photo edits and content produced. From mental health confessions to tell-all videos, the stereotypical influencer is much different than the unrealistic standards and polished look 24/7 a mere 10 years ago. One may think users would stray away from creators that have fallen off from their perfected lifestyles, these creators still amass their same viewership today. As these creators grow and change, so do their audiences. There is no true perfect influencer.
UA senior and influencer Emma McGowin believes this transparency is making users more comfortable to discuss these once taboo topics.
“I definitely think these influencers opening up about these things has shifted a stigma because even when our generation was kids, you didn’t hear about stuff like that. Not that it’s normalized now, but it went through a point where it was almost glamorized in a sense,” McGowin said. “It went from no one talking about it to everyone wanting to be a part of ‘that group.’”
McGowin described her own embracement of being open online.
“Something I get the most praise about talking about on my platforms is grief,” she said. “I lost my dad when I was 17, and talk about the grief that comes with that. It is something that resonates and connects with people younger than me to the moms watching me. It’s important because maybe not everyone has gone through that, but some people have. It’s important to talk about things like that so as to not put yourself on a pedestal. Bad things can happen to anyone, even your favorite influencer.”
This new era of influencing has had ripple effects in the online community. Users such as Emma Chamberlain were seen as pioneers in this shift from unattainability to authenticity. Today, 60% of lifestyle and beauty videos mention at least one transparency-related keyword. Transparency is officially trending.
And the numbers don’t lie. This transparency creates a sense of trust from viewers that cannot be created without this level of honesty and authenticity. Brand deals are becoming more convincing partnerships and thus generating more sales and revenue from audiences. In 2020, Dunkin’ Donuts partnered with Charli D’Amelio to create a drink in her name. This partnership increased app downloads for Dunkin’ by 57%, and the franchise also saw a spike in sales of 45% in the days following the collaboration launch. When influencers are more genuine online, it strengthens their connection with their audiences and boosts revenue through brand collaborations.
Social media is a revolving door of trending topics and virality. There is no way to tell what the successful influencer will look like in 10 years, or even 10 weeks from now. But there is something that is for certain — there is no ideal influencer.
Schaefer understands how tempting it can be to compare one’s life to these online personalities and urges creators to put themselves on less of a pedestal for their viewers.
“This issue makes my heart hurt,” he said. “I know it is a big issue impacting mental health. It takes a certain amount of maturity to see through the facade and view the world accurately. Honestly, I’m not sure how you can counsel somebody to view the world maturely. That would be a turn-off I think. Hopefully there will be movements where friends support friends, especially on college campuses like yours.”
This shift of influencers from branding themselves as perfect to just another person has allowed deeper connections and lessened comparison amongst users. Social media will always have its negative side effects on users, but it is comforting to know that the influencer-era has turned a page and opened up as a safer space for content consumption. Influencers, they’re just like us!
