Nothing got me quite so worked up last year as the concept of “deinfluencing”, a trend that seemed to bubble up and takeover TikTok in what felt like a matter of days.
A fellow content creator friend asked me what I thought of the whole trend, and I looked at her and said, “Where do we start? It’s a mess.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love the core sentiment, but the execution has been very poor. To the point where anyone who tries to convince me that they are “deinfluencing” people comes across as disingenuous and bandwagon-y.
A Dive into TikTok’s De-influencing Trend
If you’ve been on TikTok since the start of this year, especially on the beauty and makeup side, you’ve seen the Tarte trip to Dubai discourse and mascara gate. Now more than ever, people are wary if not downright distrustful of influencers.
Seemingly prompting the rise in… de…influencers? And so I want to share what I think of the de-influencing trend as a full-time content creator/influencer.
And yes, I’m recognizing my bias here.
If you prefer the video-version of this post, check it out below! The text-version can be found beneath it.
What is Deinfluencing?
First of all… what even is “deinfluencing”? Well that’s actually part of my problem with it.
Believe it or not, the word did actually make it into the Collins Dictionary, so here is the official definition:
Collins Dictionary
Deinfluencing (diɪnfluənsɪŋ ) uncountable noun. Deinfluencing is when someone tells their followers on social media not to buy particular items, or to buy fewer things generally.
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The Evolution of Deinfluencing on TikTok
So that definition is great and all, but let’s look to at how the concept has evolved over the course of its time on TikTok. How it started, where it drifted to, and how it ended up being used to describe the opposite of its original meaning.
De-influencing Overconsumpton
I saw many early de-influencing videos before the trend took TikTok by storm, and these early videos felt like a response to overconsumption.
People were opening drawers and showing their 50 red lipsticks, confessing that they honestly didn’t need (or use) all of them. These TikTok users were urging their audience to reconsider whether or not they too needed ALL the lipsticks (and by extension products) that they had felt the need to purchase over the years.
I really liked that these videos put the responsibility on us as individuals to not get caught up in the hype of different products, and to be mindful of what we were consuming. I myself will fully admit that I got suckered into the eyeshadow palette craze of the mid-2000s and have far too many brown lipsticks and lip glosses.
I liked that these de-influencing videos were making me think twice before purchasing anything new.
Overall, I think it was (and still could be) a fantastic conversation that supports sustainability, reducing waste, and spending wisely in a recession. All very good messaging.
The Shift to Influencer Hate
This messaging, however, quickly turned into a hate brigade on influencers.
Content creators are already not the most liked people on the internet, and there are a lot of anti-capitalism sentiments driving this. Because social media influencers’ jobs are to promote products that make businesses money, they naturally get a lot of the hate.
But while influencers are easy targets and scapegoats, we are just another cog in the big business marketing wheel–not “The Big Man” with all the money and power.
Nonetheless, there is a stereotype about influencers for a reason.
Many influencers feed into overconsumption by over-sensationalizing their product recommendations, with every lipstick being “A MUST-HAVE PRODUCT,” pushing people to buy everything without second thoughts.
This leads to people either buying more if they are fans of those creators or develop more hate towards influencers if they see through the hype.
So in the ‘deinfluencing’ space the conversation began to shift from consumers making educated choices to blaming influencers and removing responsibility from the people purchasing these things.
De-Influencing Overhyped Products
Then… de-influencing morphed into “here’s five products that are not worth the hype and that you don’t need,” calling out many hyped beauty products.
This sounds great on the surface, and very similar to how the trend started, but many of these videos became just as dramatic and over-sensationalized as the ones hyping up products. For example, if a foundation was heavily promoted by influencers, a deinfluencing video countering it would say, “THIS PRODUCT SUCKS, INFLUENCERS ARE LYING TO YOU, IT DOESN’T WORK.”
Just a total lack of nuance, without recognizing that different products work differently for different people. There was no middle ground.
The irony here is that de-influencing is still influencing.
Influencing isn’t just about getting people to buy products; it’s about influencing people to make choices. Saying “don’t buy this product” is still influencing someone to make a decision.
Back to Overconsumption
Them after all of this, we kind of ended up full circle.
The trend lost me when established influencers started making de-influencing videos saying, “don’t buy this hyped product, buy this one instead.” The plot was lost.
We were back to recommending an abundance of products again. Just ones that were ‘less popular’, or perhaps were more affordable ‘dupes’ of them.
How Do We Proceed?
So given that a pretty noble trend just ended up doing a 180, what have we learnt from “Deinfluencing”? How can we proceed more cautiously?
Well-Rounded Reviews
I think it’s time to bring back the balanced review.
As a blogger and content creator,I started with natural hair product reviews. I always aimed to give an honest, unbiased take on products, providing context about my hair or skin to help my audience make informed decisions.
If something didn’t work for me, I’d be honest, but try to recommend who it might be ideal for. Because the reality is, it’s probably for someone. Unless it is made of toxic waste making everyone’s hair fall out…
Over-sensationalizing reviews, whether positive or negative, isn’t helpful. And I think as content creators we need to proceed with a bit of balance as to not feed into the overconsumption machine.
That being said…
The problem with social media, especially TikTok, is that honest, balanced creators don’t often blow up or “succeed”.
Sensational content captures attention, leading to heightened engagement and perpetuating the cycle. TikTok has diminished our critical thinking, leaving little room for nuanced discussions.
Final Thoughts
As influencers, we need to work on honesty and realistic reactions to things.
We shouldn’t position everything as a must-have or push people to buy unnecessary products. Taking an educational approach, explaining why we like products, who they are intended for, and sharing context about our hair and skin types can help the audience make more educated decisions.
For consumers, it’s important to stop putting people on pedestals and believing all the hype. Critical thinking is essential, and we must remember that we are responsible for our own consumption. You don’t need to buy something just because your favorite creator has it.
This was a new topic/style of content for me, let me know what you think. I’ve been wanting to get this off my chest for a while. Let me know what else you’d like to see from me.
And until next time!