You Can Now Go To School To Become A Social Media Influencer
Peak 2017.
If you’ve ever looked at one someone’s perfectly curated Instagram and 100k+ follower count and thought, “Hey, I could do that,” you’re definitely not alone. But apart from turning back time, there’s no guaranteed formula for becoming an Instagram influencer… right?
At least one school is willing to bet that Instagram influence can be gamed from the ground up: Yiwu Industrial & Commercial College. There, students can take a “modelling and etiquette” class that’s all about becoming an Instagram famous personality. The tools of the trade? Learning and perfecting your poses, developing a specific fashion sense, becoming a make-up expert, and knowing how to work with photos and video, among other skills.
Alas, Yiwu is located in China, so those of you looking for your social media glow up probably won’t have access to a formal “learning” setting. But there’s a particular appetite for social media stars in rapidly expanding media markets like China, which has 700 million smartphone users. (America, for example, has about 200 million.)
That said, there’s definitely a gender component to this standardised version of social media fame; out of the course’s current enrollment, all 34 students are young women. But as social media stardom is one of the only places where women’s earnings outpace men’s, it’s not super surprising why these women would spend their time and money to get there.