The recent news surrounding the Vauld crisis has raised concerns regarding fintech influencers and their credibility. Since the losses are immediate and tangible, the investors are now skeptical about such influencers and their financial advice content shared on social media.
In 2017-18, many food influencers and mom bloggers were promoting many packaged and junk foods, citing health and nutrition-related claims. As far as food is concerned, there is no way to attribute the intake of a single food product to the cause of an ailment. Because of this sole reason, such food influencers got away with irresponsible promotions - they make their money from brands, write books, take fancy vacations, and what not!
In the past couple of years, there is also a new trend of influencers, promoting extreme lifestyles and ideologies on social media, across various aspects of life - parenting, diet, nutrition, fitness, wellness, home organization, etc. They paint a pretty picture - be it their reels/videos/snapshots from their lives or testimonials/interviews that are carefully curated to pique our curiosity. If we want to know more, we are asked to sign up for their heavily priced workshops.
Some of us might end up taking important life decisions after listening to such influencers without doing our due diligence. The consequences might be extremely stressful in such cases. Eg: you listen to someone passionately talk about homeschooling and you end up pulling your child out of school, only to realize later that homeschooling is not working out for your family. I have heard this from a few mothers.
There is a fine line between gathering someone's perspective vs getting influenced. Follow people whom you find inspiring, attend their workshops, and buy their courses/recordings. BUT, make sure that you are not getting influenced blindly. Before taking any important decision concerning yourself or your family, invest that extra effort into deeper research, taking into consideration your life's context, family situation, environment, etc.
Be it any domain, influencers are plenty. The more time we spend on social media, the higher probability our thoughts aren't necessarily ours.