One of the hottest new buzzwords is deinfluencing - a form of online influencing where influencers tell people what not to buy.
TikTok, of course, is where most of the deinfluencing influencing is happening. As the screen grab from TikTok below shows, the hashtag #deinfluencing recently had 268 million views.
Time's TikTok's 'De-Influencing' Trend Is Here to Tell You What Stuff You Don't Need to Buy nicely describe the trend. Key quote:
"The growing trend is a direct response to the endless deluge of products that beauty and lifestyle influencers insist you simply must have."
But others have pointed out that most deinfluencers are, well, just influencers with a slightly different message.
Yes, they tell you what not to buy. But they also tell you what to buy instead.
Key quote from the Financial Times article What de-influencing tells us about the state of the creator economy:
De-influencing is not a rejection of consumerism or social media. You can tell that by the fact that many of the videos follow up negative reviews with suggestions of things their followers should buy instead.
Buzzfeed News' Sorry, But The "Deinfluencing Trend" Is Just ... Influencing says:
Deinfluencing is a fun trend and TikTok buzzword, but the media's embrace of the term illustrates some misconceptions about influencers. It doesn't spell the end of the industry at all — it's just another version of the same thing.
Social media influencers are here to stay. So is social commerce.
And deinfluencing is just an evolution in how influencers use their influence to promote commerce.