Inspiration

Inspiration often has a domino effect, where one person’s passion quickly becomes admired and emulated by many others. Depending on how inspired these individuals become, they could invoke the same feeling in even more people. The easiest place to see this is in social media, where influencers feel less removed and glorified in comparison to a typical Hollywood celebrity. YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and TikTokers set the stage for this phenomenon: these influencers are often appreciated for their personality, opinions, stylization, and focus of their content often due to its relatability and uniqueness. While some creators’ niche are found in showing very alien content to the average viewer like expensive jewelry or specialized recipes, a vast majority of creators will discuss topics like high school or provide commentary on video games that are accessible to most viewers. Successful creators of this kind inspire me because they show the importance of personality and how it can be used to jumpstart a career or hobby.

Despite how inspirational creators are to me as a whole, they also warn others of the weight of responsibility. This is most prevalent in their vigilance to immoral choices and willingness to admit fault to said choices. Many creators have made a variety of terrible choices in the past: YouTube’s Jenna Marbles is on an indefinite hiatus due to past videos with racially insensitive impressions, while Twitch’s Clix was banned from streaming after showing explicit content live. Whether these incidents are honest mistakes or forgivable is up to individual interpretation, but both signal how important it is to remain careful in an online space. A career or publicized hobby through these services can be extremely rewarding to their hosts and their audience due to its authenticity, which consequently makes the implications of being under a large audience’s and large company’s mercy even more intimidating. If either party is dissatisfied with a creator’s actions, both have the capacity to shut down the creator for varying periods of time. These creators inspire me, but I can’t say I fully envy their position as a whole. That could be called an integral part of inspiration though: it’s rare that someone who is inspiring is also working through simple and easy circumstances.