Social media has evolved significantly in recent years, and so have its viewers. Apps like Vine, Musically, Tumblr and more have transformed into today’s Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube. Viewers are becoming creators, and scrolling and watching turns into posting and sharing. Some of those influencers are students and teachers right here at RM; they can use their platforms to share their interest and talents, whether it’s fashion, gaming, cooking or even educational content.
Known by many with her 460K follower base on TikTok, senior Julie Schwieters and @Kelseysupr3macy, also referred to as “Goalkeeper Julie,” said, “Ever since I started senior year and over the summer, I’ve just been really busy and I haven’t been posting as much as I did last year, so it’s definitely hard to think of content while thinking about my schoolwork.” Balancing school/social life with influencing is not as easy as it seems.
“A lot of times after school I would go on livestreams and that would take a lot of my time over like doing schoolwork, but I’ve been able to balance it out and maintain good grades,” said sophomore Abigail Lee, best recognized with her hauls and “grwm” (get ready with me) on TikTok by @Yourstrulyvlogs. With both the responsibilities of school work and maintaining an active social media presence, influencing can definitely be overwhelming and time-consuming.
Many students/social media stars have long term goals with their influencing, planning to take their passions even further and dreaming to have real futures or careers stemming from their posting. “At some point I want to start doing something meaningful with my follower base like making educational content or something, just having a general theme of my content rather than just posting whatever comes to my mind,” Schwieters said.
Junior Hannah Klun and @Badbleeps.only128, best known through TikTok from “mostly creating funny videos, they have to do with carpet cleaning and like funny edits as well,” said she would hope to “try and join the creator fund and make some money one day.”
Along with RM student influencers, teachers also have social media presence and influencing motives. US Government teacher Mr. Grossfeld-Katz, posting on Tiktok under the handle @Newsnickles, said, “I try to find five new stories that I think are relevant and I post little summaries of those five new stories.”
Yet to be recognized in public, and with a growing fanbase, Mr. Grossfeld-Katz said, “My long term goal is that I want young people to see the value and understanding of the news, and realize that it is accessible to them.” Not only do teachers entertain audiences in their classrooms everyday, they also can do it from home too and share to more than their students!
Social media also raises attention to aspiring artists; many well known celebrities we know and love today first started by posting online. For example, Justin Bieber and The Weekend first got noticed by music producers and fans on YouTube for singing videos, Shawn Mendes started to gain popularity from going viral on Vine, and Megan Thee Stallion became hugely popular with her fanbase and quickly racked up plays on Soundcloud and YouTube. Just like those stars, sophomore Aaron Swibel, music artist and @Aaronswibel_offical on Instagram, said, “I would love to get my music reached out further and to more people, but we hope that happens.”
Posting publicly on social media gives it access to the world, and takes a lot of courage and vulnerability. Nonetheless, social media can also connect creators globally, and with features like comments, likes, sharing and direct messaging, creators are enabled to interact with their followers/fans; this creates a sense of community and connection.
“I have never been recognized in public for my music, but I have fans. I value all my followers, and their support means a lot to me,” Swibel said.
If you would like to voice your opinion on an issue you feel is relevant to our community, please do so here. Anyone is able and welcome to submit a Letter to the Editor, regardless of journalistic experience or writing skills. Submissions may be published either online or in a print issue.
