<
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20250107-why-the-pushback-against-influencers-is-growing>
'In 2019, Diana Wiebe was deep in a social media scroll when she came across an
influencer promoting heatless curling rods. "They were rods you could sleep in
overnight, and the promise was to wake up with beautiful curls," she tells the
BBC.
It was one of many products she was influenced to buy from TikTok, but like
several of the others, including skin creams and facial scrubs, she quickly
realised she didn't need them. "Honestly, the curlers really disrupted my
sleep, and I didn't make it past night one," she says, adding "my hair is
naturally wavy, so I think the curler actually did too much".
Fast forward to 2025, and Wiebe, who lives in Ohio, is now an influencer
herself, but there is a difference between her and many others. She is trying
to "de-influence" her followers from buying things they don't need.
In her daily TikTok videos, the content creator – who has more than 200,000
followers on the app – asks questions like "did you want that product before it
was marketed to you?", and reminds her followers that weekly and monthly
clothing "hauls" are not normal. "Haul" culture is a specific kind of
social-media content that originated on YouTube in which creators reveal a haul
of purchases – usually clothing – to their followers.
Wiebe is part of a movement – growing since 2023 – that rejects traditional
influencer culture, one that has exploded on TikTok, with the hashtag
#deinfluencing racking up more than a billion views.
Along with hashtags like "underconsumption core" and "conscious consumer", they
share key messages, such as "fast fashion won't make you stylish" and
"underconsumption is normal consumption". As we move into 2025, Wiebe believes
the cultural tide is turning and that we've reached "peak influencer".'
Via Joyce Donahue, who wrote "Blacklash was inevitable."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
