Are CGI Social Media Influencers Taking Over?

CGI- computer generated images are one biggest hits of the century. However, in recent discoveries, CGI individuals seem to be taking over the jobs of social media influencers. Social media influencers are individuals who use social media and establish credibility in their industry or for a company's product. These individuals usually have a high number of followers and reach.

A study shows that 42 percent of Gen Z and millennial have followed one of these CGI influencers without realizing that they were not real. A Northwestern University professor, Frank Mulhern states," It's unsure if CGI influencers are just a phase or a trend that's going to stick around for a while. As more time passes by it may become harder to distinguish them from actual human beings with the upgrade in technology."

Brud, the mystery company behind the creation of Miquela isn't too known among the public,but this mystery helps to enhance the excitement about Miquela.

Miquela Sousa is a fictionalized social media influencer. With almost 2 million followers on Instagram, Miquela has the appearance of a 19 year old female. At a quick glance at her photos, she could be passed off as a real life person. Her Instagram post follows her lifestyle. She interacts with real-life musicians, artist, influencers, and attends all kinds of events and places.

Debuted in 2016, after a few months of posting photos on Instagram, she revealed herself to be "fake". Experts say, " Through their presence on social media, these account have potential to not only change the landscape of digital marketing but to also surface serious problems for the real world."

Even their are avatars created by real people, their influence is still making an impact on social media platforms and Miquela isn't the only one of her kind.

There are other social media influencers who are CGI as well. Instagram influencer Bermuda, Blawko, Lil Wavi, and Shudu are grabbing the attention of viewers on Instagram. With CGI rising in the future of using social media, where does this lead using real humans in the future?

Dr Mike Varshavski, a Instagram influencer with over 3.3 million followers believes that there's no real threat to human influencers. He states, " There's something magical and interesting watching a human live their lives because humans are imprefect, and that sort of imperfection is really what makes being human special."

Organic Influencers are the Future to Social Media Marketing

In recent years, the usage of social media influencers has taken marketing to a new level on social media. Influencers helps the audience to feel more connected or create a desire for them to buy the product their promoting.

However, in latest reports, the use of social media influencers is overplayed. With a high number of scandals, the lack of trust from the audience is growing. Influencers are buying fake followers on their pages and some viewers are feeling forced to buy products with the way the influencers are being told to push out products.

There was a recent uproar about a social media influencer who is CGI. Miquela, who is a computer generated image has become quite popular on Instagram.With this, the rise of "fake" influencers and she's not the only one.

With the thought of "fake" influencers, many viewers are beginning to question the real authenticity of the products they are seeing. For example, if social media influencers are becoming CGI, how can they actually try a product if they aren't real.

In recent studies, individuals are 9.8x more likely to buy a merchandise from viewing a follow peer's post over a social media influencer. The connection between influencers and their audience is slowly diminishing. Their engagement rates are falling down the drain as the average consumer gains more engagement from their friends and followers.

The term "organic influencers" will consist of genuine brand advocates. With these influencers, the importance is in more the engagement than their follower counts. With these organic influencers, the amount of distrust and fakeness that the viewers feel will slowly go away.

Many believe that with organic influencers, the authenticity that the audience will view will come from posts that are more well earned rather than bought off.

In this modern age, many viewers from any social media platform want to invest their time with authentic people. With organic influencers, companies feel that their reach will gain more engagement if the influencers they use influencers who are real and aren't being bought off to sell product. Their plans for 2020 is to gain more engagement through organic influencers and trying to be more authentic with how they want to present their products.

Sexual References to Emojis Banned on Facebook & Instagram

Facebook has updated their Community Standards policy. With this new updated policy, the use of "commonly sexual emojis"..

Both platforms, Facebook and Instagram have limited the use of any emojis that may be referenced into any sexual context. Facebook claims, "We draw the line when content facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters between adults."

Although Facebook did not specify on the emojis that have these sexual meanings, the most prominent ones that the public can gather are the peach and eggplant emojis.

According to emojipedia.org, the eggplant emoji is used to reference a male's genitalia. The peach emoji is also references for the appearance of a person's backside.

To have a person's post banned from Facebook or Instagram, a person has to "implicitly or indirectly off or ask for a nude image, sex chats, or sex partners.

Facebook's new policy also states," We restrict sexually explicit language that may lead to solicitation because of some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content and it may impede the ability for people to connect with their friends and the broader community."

Not only does the policy ban a person's post with the use of emojis, but other formats of media such as videos, photographs, chats, and conversations.

For now the policy holds no promise on its effectiveness. The new policy is already hitting criticism by some folks. Amanda Mull, a staff writer for the The Atlantic claims, " researchers found that adults who use the emoji had more romantic and sexual interactions in the previous year and were more likely to go beyond the first date with a new partner."

Whether a person has consent on the matter of the sexual implication do not matter as well. The algorithm might act out without waiting for any reports.