In The Times’ “The 25 Most Influential People on the Internet,” they evaluate contenders by looking at their global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news. Ranging from beauty gurus to politicians and royals to world famous eggs? The “winners” certainly displayed a range of influencers.
The Times displays its choices through a photo, their names, and their stories. The list is unranked, and after reading through it, it is understandable to see why. The range of people, and their impacts, are so wide that they are not comparable, and other than numbers of views, likes, or reposts, they can’t quantify the “world impact” they had on others because some things affect people more than others. Something that stood out to me in the post is how many of these people either had political motivations or implications to make through their presence. There was Congresswoman AOC, teaching her peers the best social media practices and the importance of being authentic, President Donald Trump with 84 tweets a day, young climate change activists, and Ady Barkan fighting for medicare access. There are some extremely important messages being spread by these people. For example, Rahaf Mohammed is a teenage runaway, using social media to catapult her plight and the status of Saudi women onto the world stage. She had escaped an abusive system where male guardians are given authority over their female relatives’ life decisions. There was also Carlos Maza, who had been repeatedly harassed on Youtube by a right-wing commentator for his sexual orientation and ethnicity. Youtube failed to act in defense of Maza, Maza responding that he is not optimistic about systematic change on their platform since “harassment is really good for engagement.” On the other hand, you have a “world record egg” whose only purpose was to get more likes than Kylie Jenner, and a feud between beauty gurus James Charles and Tati Westbrook. Evidently, there was a wide range in this list, and frankly, although it is objectively about their influence and The Times captured this, it feels a little off and almost disrespectful to have these people on the same list of “influence.”
I think the limitation to these charts is that although they recognize people doing great, and not so great things, it leaves room to ignore others that are also causing major global waves. Yes—there are larger, different lists—but most people don’t have the time, or care enough, to go searching or to go through all of these lists. The Times is known for its “influential people” and their man and woman of the year. Additionally, there were a few names on this list that I was not even familiar with, just calling more attention to the fact that who and what influences you from a social media standpoint differs. For example, many of these people went viral on Twitter, a platform I personally don’t use, which raises the question of how to get movements to span across these different platforms AND in print. They have different purposes and functions, but there were a lot of messages—about body image, politics, climate change, etc.—that I think everyone should be seeing. The older generations don’t tend to be on these platforms, and how are they going to care about some of the issues our generation is facing if they are isolated from the only platforms they are displayed on?
I read through this list myself, and I agree with you that it feels disrespectful to include people that have such a positive social presence with those whose activity on the internet is purely drama or negative. The criteria for making this list is done by “looking at their global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news”. If so many people on this list are not necessarily ‘positive’ contributors to society, what does this say about us as people and who we choose to pay attention too? People like Logan and Jake Paul who are rather controversial, are only famous because of the views and time we give them. Additionally, many people on this list I have never heard of, which resonates with your point that what and who influences you differs based on your own identity. Overall, I am not pleased with the results of this list, which reflects on my overall opinion on who our society chooses as spheres of influence.
I understand and feel the same frustration about the New York Times including people that have caused negative or did an act only for attention. However, I appreciate that they include “influencers” that aren’t as professional and world turning because those little laughs spread across the world like a random egg on social media does make a difference in an important way. I listened to a podcast about this artist/poet who was making a comic out of himself during an interview and received a lot of hate for it from his colleagues. However, he phrased it like everyone goes through these heavy days and by the end of it, laying down catching up with news and media, something to laugh at is just as or even more so impactful as something to cry at.
I agree that it feels strange to reflect upon whom we as a society has deemed most influential on the Internet. Political activists are placed on the same unranked list next to an online influencer who sets trends in fashion or makeup, for example, which is revolutionary within the industry and on social media by reaching mixed, broad audiences. This article shows me how valid influence is regardless of focus area, whether it be a medical field, political scene, psychology information-spreading, authorship, or more. Going “viral” can change someone’s life and throw them in public spotlight faster than ever in this day in age, and it takes skill to manage this challenge of handling mass media attention with care. For example, Charli D’Amelio found her fame unexpectedly, and Billie Eilish became famous for her craft, as well, at such a young age, changing the scope of their life forever due to social media influence, whether it be TikTok or Spotify.
This is so interesting trying to compare this list to what this would look like today. Faces like James Charles and Liza Koshy certainly wouldn’t be on the list today. I find it fascinating how they haven’t continued this list since COVID. I think the pandemic actually gave the the ability to stop doing the lists without announcing their doing so. I think smaller categories, like how Forbes does their lists of influential people, is a great example of breaking down the groups of people and how we can narrow the niche and really highlight impressive individuals.
I find the list so interesting because as you said, I do not know everyone on this list. So, I am not sure if there can be a list of truly the most influential people of the year because everyone’s reality is different. The influencers and “celebrities” I pay attention to are often going to be different to someone else. It depends what people’s interests are and what they are looking for when the seek individuals in the media. In addition, I feel like this list mostly focuses on people who have caught attention in America, but I am sure in other countries, there would be a different list of the most influential people. So, overall, this list does not make sense because it’s impossible to include everyone’s different realties and perspectives when trying to choose the most influential people.
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