In 2021, most people would consider Kylie Jenner as a celebrity because she comes from a family of money, has been on TV for a decade with her family’s show Keeping up with the Kardashians , and has continued to prosper in skincare and makeup. However, when googled, “ top influencers 2021”, Kylie Jenner is the third person to show. Of the top 20 celebrities of 2021, Kylie does not make an appearance. According to Sıla Ekşioğlu, in “Celebrities v. Influencers: What sets them apart?”, a celebrity is one who gains their recognition through traditional ways, whereas an influencer gains their recognition through “new media”.
In the Gilded age, people that were identified as celebrities were people that had an imprint in history. Most of these people are people we hear about in our middle school and high school classes, such as Andrew Carnigie, John D. Rockefeller, and Upton Sinclair. All of these people stood out during their time. For example, Upton Sinclair is known for The Jungle which brought awareness to the people on the hard conditions of industrialization. It is commonly said that influencers directly connect with their audience and are driven by their audience’s needs, whereas a celebrity has mustered up fame through their talents and already have a fan base and just interact with their fans as a part of their job. An influencer’s main priority is usually their fans because without their fans they are nothing. A celebrity’s main priority is their talent and their fan base comes second.
On social media platforms, influencers are receiving equal if not more attention than certain celebrities. Before Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Vine, etc. it was hard for one to keep up with a celebrity’s daily life. The news, grammy’s, oscars and google would inform fans on what their favorite celebrity was up to. In the early 2000s, mainstream media platforms were aol messenger and myspace, which were platforms which were used to communicate with friends and family, along with facebook which then started becoming popular as well. The access provided for fans to keep up with their favorite artist/celebrity and now influencer has become really easy with the amount of media platforms provided in modern society.
Similar to now, the industrial revolution had an impact similar to our technological revolution at the moment. During the industrial revolution, when simple machines and other machine advances were introduced, everything changed globally because it opened up a different definition of working and changed many jobs. Our current society reflects the same with social media, being that social media has changed the concept of being a fan and made reaching out to one’s favorite celebrity and/or influencer, it shifts the purpose and objective, just like simple machines did with jobs back then.
All this to say, Celebrities are people that have been recognized for years for the most part, people that participate in movies, tv shows, big shot concerts, and other events that do not require social media to gain recognition. Influencers are more modernized and usually have a certain group’s attention and rely on the media to increase their recognition and fame. Celebrities often go through agencies, managers, and marketing teams to promote and be brand ambassadors for companies, Influencers take matters into their own hands for the most part and decide for themselves what is best for the audience that they have. It is often being mixed up because there have been influencers that are on covers of high-end magazines or attending the grammys or emmy awards but there is a fine line between a celebrity and an influencer.