Influencer culture is inextricably tied to consumerism and the rise of technology, with the term used to describe someone (or something) with the power to affect the buying habits or quantifiable actions of others by uploading some form of original—often sponsored—content to social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube.
Influencers are seen as more akin to a close friend than an advertiser or paid endorser, with the stream of content they produce—and the more casual way in which it is shared with the public—imbuing influencers with an air of authenticity that is rarely seen in semicommercial spaces.
The history of influencerdom is, in essence, a history of the modern web itself, from early web forums and bulletin board sites of the 1990s and early 2000s allowing people to publicly post and reply to messages from other users, to the rise of personal blogs in the early to late 2000s and their subsequent commercialization.