Influencers

I am always late to the party of vocabulary terms in the lexicon of contemporary society. Being retired from the workplace has not helped the situation. I was always grateful for the vocabulary lessons my young colleagues patiently shared with me. Without them I would probably still be in the dark about hashtags, reddit, snapchat and any word with byte in it. I would fail miserably if I was given a quiz over the aforementioned topics but, like it or not, the world of technology is here for the foreseeable future.

A term recently adopted into the English dictionary is influencer. Certainly, the word has been around for centuries. There is evidence that the gladiators of ancient Rome were influencers of their time. I think an arena of snarling, drooling lions would probably influence me in a big way so I am not sure if that definition of an influencer is parallel to current meanings. But, who am I to tangle with a gladiator's vocabulary?

One of the modern day definitions of an influencer, as per my friend Merriam Webster, is "someone who is able to generate interest in something, such as consumer products, by posting about it on social media." Boy howdy, isn't that the truth? The phrase "such as consumer products" really stands out to me. Perhaps, we should call it what it is and identify current influencers as sales people who create semi-imaginary worlds of beautiful people traveling to beautiful places in beautiful clothes who happen to live in exquisite homes with attractive and talented children. Being a salesperson is about selling products and I respect that profession. Social media, however, has changed the game with its ability to lull many into thinking everything posted is reality and worthy of imitation.

Obviously, a person in my age range did not grow up with media influencers. I did not have a television until I was well into elementary school. Magazines were related to farming at our house and frugality was a priority over fashionable lifestyles. The radio was usually tuned to stations that shared the latest livestock reports and weather updates. I saw my first theater movie when I was in high school. In other words, I was blessed.

My influencers were more of the real person variety. Here are a few I remember.

1) My parents--Whether I liked it or not, I was always watching and learning from them. My parents were not perfect people but I never questioned their commitment to raising all of us to become decent human beings. I can assure you, we did not always make that task easy. We knew that trips to trendy ski chalets would never be on our itineraries but a drive through the river hills felt no less exciting. Thanks, Mom and Dad.

2) My Sunday School teachers--Good gracious, what a task they had! Kind folks, often with no formal teacher training, stepped up to the plate to teach a bunch of squirmy kids about the Bible. I know I did not always make it pleasant for them but I do know that their lessons often wiggled into my little brain. I also understood that they cared enough about the children of the church to hand out the sunday school papers, week after week. Thank you, Sunday School heroes!

3) Friends--I was blessed with many good friends and that holds true today. Peer pressure can be a good thing when those around you are worth emulating. I value the opinions of my friends far more than the world of social media and I enjoy conversations with real people in real time. Thank you, dear friends!

I hope you have many good influencers in your life. I will leave the definition of good up to you and don't forget to appreciate them if you can.