perfect body, the perfect relationship or
family or the perfect job,” Vohra says.
For influencers whose livelihoods rely
on retaining followers and constantly de-
livering fresh content, this number-centric
lens on success can be detrimental to pro-
ductivity, motivation and mental health.
“There is constant pressure to create more
and more and more engaging contacts to
try to entice more viewers,” North says.
With social-media platforms’ internal
analytics and top content rankings, con-
tent creators can track—and obsess over—
everything. In order to keep growing their
communities and ensure that viewers keep
coming back, they are subject to churning
out unique content on a regular, sometimes
daily, basis for success. In turn, this can re-
sult in burnout. “Since your job depends
on it, it can be hard to hit the brakes,” Kjell-
berg told Insider in 2019.
This tremendous stress has caused
many YouTubers to walk away from the
platform for weeks or even months at a
time, citing burnout and a need to focus on
△
Swedish YouTube
sensation Felix
Kjellberg, a.k.a.
PewDiePie, has a big
online following.their personal lives. For non-influencers,
North recommends measuring personal
success not by follower count or likes but
by real-life benchmarks. “The engagement
on social media is not a valid indicator of
success either personally or professionally.
It all depends on who you are and who you
interact with in your life,” she says.
But social media’s impact on success and
how we perceive it may not be entirely dis-
mal. In a manner not possible pre–Digital
Age, people can use social media to brand
themselves and build their professional
networks. Via networking tools on plat-
forms like LinkedIn and DIY video culture
on YouTube, professionals and business
owners “are now in the business of creating
PR campaigns for themselves,” North says.
When it comes to self-comparison and
measuring personal success, Vohra points
to the ability of users to curate their feeds
and mute anything that makes them feel
less successful. “If someone’s content only
serves to confound your inadequacy,” she
says, “then unfollow.” •