It's a symbol of how hollow our digital world can be, but we could demand better.
 | By Suein Hwang Business, Economics and Technology Editor, Opinion |
It is the scam of our century, or at least one that feels very of this century: Social-media influencers are shaking down restaurants. And that says a lot about how hollow the underpinnings of the digital world we increasingly rely on can be. |
Restaurateurs are reporting an increase in influencers who first promise to promote their establishments online in exchange for free food and drink, then enjoy the meal and walk away without holding up their end of the bargain, according to a guest essay published Monday by Karen Stabiner. Restaurant owners feel conned, but what can they do? They, like a growing number of us, are realizing that in our online world, it is those with the most followers who hold all the cards. |
We followers are conned as well. Scrolling past pretty photographs of pretty food, we have no clear way of discerning fact from fiction. Perhaps the influencer really loved the restaurant. Or perhaps was just paid to say so: Some influencers peddle to restaurants packages that can cost upward of $1,000 for a prescribed number of Instagram stories, posts and a video. The only thing that really matters in the influencer business is that we keep following; there is no enforced commitment to quality or truth. |
"The more we rely on influencer posts, the more our critical faculties shrink, because often there's no depth, no context, no reporting, nothing beyond the surface image of fun, and we can't tell whom to trust," Stabiner writes. Despite this, many restaurant owners say they cannot afford to stay out of the social-media game. |
Perhaps we followers can help them by demanding the influencers we follow be as honest as they are important; there may be something, after all, to the adage linking power and responsibility. |
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