Remember the teachers who had a significant influence on you and that you still remember how they changed your life—hopefully, those memories are positive influences. I remember well several teachers in my childhood that challenged me to achieve more than I thought I could and built my confidence with timely compliments. Those teachers influenced my life, and I am thankful.
The term influencers is popular today. However, influencers is currently used more often to describe people who have thousands of online groupies who tune in regularly for the latest selfies, mini-videos, and tweets. These influencers do change people’s lives but in ways that are very different from those memorable teachers. Often today’s influencers are inauthentic, using enhanced images, rehearsed videos, and sponsored products to display. Online influence efforts are just a powerful form of visual marketing. Social media influence does sell products and feeds to the ego and bank account of the influencers, but it is a significantly different type of influence that teachers have.
The following chart identifies some of the contrasts between authentic and inauthentic influencers:
As the term influencer becomes linked to social media, it is fitting to add the adjectives such as marketing, celebrity, or ego-hungry to describe the true self-centered focus of social media influencers. Teachers, however, should continue to hold the title of authentic influencers who change students’ lives with positive influence in the two-way communication of listening and caring. Teachers are authentic influencers inspiring students to shape their future based on their aspirations rather than mimicking the inauthentic lives of others.