Young. Beautiful. Smiling. Singing. Silence. Silenced. Shot. Dead. Gone. Unbelievable. Awful. Horrible. Can’t be true. It must be fake. It is the trick of virtual reality. It is reality. It happens. It happened. A young teenage girl, Sana Yousaf, is no more. She was living her dream.
The brutal reality gunned her down. A young psychopath living in his delusional reality ended the dream. Ended the life. It is heartbreaking. It is mind shattering. It is soul shaking. This should not have happened. It has.
Yes, the one who has allegedly committed her murder is arrested and yes he will be punished. Is this enough? No. How to ensure that such incidents are not repeated? There are no absolute answers but yes a debate and discourse to discover more ways of preventing this is the need of the hour.
Social media goods and bads have become a central topic. The impact of social media is now part of policies and programmes at the highest level. However, the core debate remains on social media use and abuse by general public. The recent increase in the desire for conversion of users to influencers is something that is now becoming an area of discussion.
The young or Gen Z as we call them are really attracted by this field. More than half of young people want to be influencers. According to a 2023 Morning Consult survey 57 percent, to be exact. Not to say older people do not want to become influencers. Nearly half, 41 percent of adults overall would choose the career as well.
The reason is that it is a dream that most people have -money, fame and independence. The typical professional life where you are bound by rules and job descriptions puts the young off.
In their minds, becoming an influencer means, no overbearing boss, no 9 to 5 routines, and the power of being able to influence a lot of people, with loads of money in a short span. What is attracting them is the overnight fame and success of the social media stars like “the Pawri ho rahi hai” girl, the Arshad “chai wala”, the coke studio “pasoori” girl. Fair enough. Out of these three, only one was a budding influencer to begin with. And there are millions who do not make it. Behind this insta fame and fortune lustre, the story has many shades of grey that need to be kept in mind while taking up this career:
Looming and dooming cyber stalking— We are in the influencer era. We are living in the influencer culture. Influencing has always been there. Personal selling where professional salesmen would come and influence the customer choices is an old business norm. Advertising that convinces people to buy a product is part and parcel of any business strategy. As is usual, when influencing power increases, so does its misuse. That is why there are laws that ensure that the use of promotion is within ethical and legal boundaries. At the end of 2023 the global Influencer marketing industry was worth some USD 21 billion, according to influencer Marketing Hub. Surveys conducted by the Keller Advisory Group and Adobe reported 300 million people globally consider themselves content creators. This is big business. An influencer can earn more than an established business. Time for Security Exchange Corporation of Pakistan to establish laws to regulate this industry. This is absolutely essential to create a differential between true and fake influencers. The other need is to have specific cyber stalking laws. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), tasked with investigating cybercrime and registering cases of online violence, has repeatedly failed to submit a report to parliament regarding their operations as required under section 53 of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016. Advocacy groups and parliamentarians need to put serious pressure to amend the bill to make the punishments more timely and with grave and deterring consequences.
Kid influencing is not all green— Not only the young are in the influencing attraction, but kids are acting as influencers too. Here come ambitious parents. They know that nothing gets more likes than a kid saying something cute and catchy. This is really making kids live unreal lives and influence other kids to live unreal lives. The attraction is so great that kids who would say they want to be doctors or fire fighters now want to be influencers. One in three children wants to be a YouTuber or vlogger, while only about one in ten chose astronaut, an international survey found in 2019. The latest figures must be even more worrying. These children will not have a normal childhood once they become the primary source of income for their families and they will have to face the exhaustion of work life from a very young age. They are likely to face mental health issues at a very young age as they face an identity crisis. Mohammad Shiraz, 12 years old, from Baltistan, had gained a massive following of 1.58 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, Shirazi Village Vlogs. His father had to stop the Vlogs as his son’s personality was damaged. Shiraz’s father explained he quit due to two main reasons. Firstly, Shiraz’s fame had changed his personality, and he was no longer the same obedient and charming boy he used to be. His father noticed that he was not interacting with his friends and family with the same attitude as before, and this was a side-effect of being a social media star. His reintegration into the normal life may itself be a complex parenting issue.
Time for influencer certification— In Pakistan, the influencers need education and protection. The government must make it mandatory for influencers to register and get certified to run their accounts. There must be some online courses supervised by relevant authorities that explain what influencing involves, how to cope with cyber bullying, cyber stalking, what laws protect them and where to get help from. The random race to post videos to increase following especially by youngsters creates dangers of being amongst a segment whose reactions are unpredictable. Education on them can prevent a lot of tragedies from happening.
If a country like Australia has limited the use of social media for under-16, there is a very strong case of taking this rapidly growing industry as seriously as advertising. The unbridled and free postings regardless of age are pushing the safety boundaries too far.
As they say about power, so goes for influencing too-Absolute influence creates absolute exploitation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a columnist, consultant, coach, and an analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com