The Internet’s Most Influential People

I use the internet every day and thus one would think that I would know who the most influential people are online. But do you know what? I don’t. Despite the wide reach of my reading endeavours, I am in the dark as to who holds sway in the online world. Well, that was until recently when the task of finding these people came my way. Now before I go any further, I feel it’s important that I draw the distinction between influential and most followed. Just because you’ve got millions of followers – I’m looking at you, Kim Kardashian – doesn’t mean you’ve got the most influence. At the same time it’s important to note that the line between a large following and influence can get blurred. Time Magazine recently listed the net’s 25 most influential people. I however will only focus on 5.

Five From 25

According to Time Magazine, 2018’s list of the 25 most influential people online are as follows:

• Kylie Jenner
• Ariel Martin
• The Students of Parkland, Fla.
• Lil Miquela
• Tyler Blevins, aka Ninja
• Busy Phillips
• ‘Q’
• Kayla Itsines
• Matt Drudge
• Tony Liu & Lindsey Schuyler, aka @DietPrada
• Shaun King
• Ryan, aka Ryan ToysReview
• The Women of #BabaeAko
• Scott Rogowsky
• Eman al Nafjan
• Roland Szabo
• Kanye West
• Sia Cooper, aka @DiaryOfAFitMommyOfficial
• Daniel Baker & Joel Martinez, aka Desus & Mero
• President Trump
• Naomi Watanabe
• Charlotte & Dave Willner
• Rihanna
• Logan & Jake Paul
• BTS

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1. President Trump

Source: Pixabay What can be said about President Donald J Trump that hasn’t been said already? The man is a piece of work and a chancer of epic proportions. By way of Twitter, Trump holds a substantial sway over his supporters and has tweeted about and spoken so many untruths, yet his supports don’t dissent despite overwhelming evidence that the man is a blatant liar. Don’t believe me, check out a very interesting documentary series on Netflix called Dirty Money and an episode called ‘Trump Inc’. If anything, if you’re a fan, it should shake up your thoughts on the man. To sum up the doc, he’s no billionaire by any stretch of the imagination and garners the majority of his money through licencing deals for the Trump name, many of which have gone south and even robbed people of their money.

2. Rihanna

Source: Teen Vogue It’s hard to believe that since 2005 with the release of ‘SOS’ from her second album, ‘A Girl Like Me’, Rihanna has enjoyed immense success. In saying it’s hard to believe, the implication is to do with the amount of years that have passed. Thirteen years and this woman is still pumping out the hits. I’ll say this much though, the success of SOS was largely, if not mostly, thanks to the backtracking of Tainted Love by Soft Cell. That aside, Rihanna’s presence on Instagram is such that she can cause a business to lose $800 million. In March of this year she did just that when Snapchat used an image of the pop princess to play down the seriousness of domestic violence. As most people know, she’s no stranger to this type of abuse; one need only Google her relationship with perpetual bad boy, Chris Brown, and one will get an idea. She took to Instagram, made her disapproval clear and Snapchat’s profit depleted to the value of $800 million. If that isn’t sway, then I don’t know what is! But RiRi doesn’t just post things or make statements, she’s a savvy business woman too. She brought out what has become a lucrative beauty line simply because she listened to a segment of the public that felt left out by the beauty industry.

3. Kanye West

Source: CNBC “Now I’m mad, Joe Jackson!” You cannot knock this guy on lyrics, that’s for sure. Kanye West, like many rappers before him, has great lyrics, but when it comes to courting controversy, he separates the men from the boys. The act of marrying the queen of brainless reality TV, Kim Kardashian, was already enough to court controversy for years to come. West’s ego practically has a life of its own. He has referred to his tweets as contemporary art and in recent times has come under fire for backing Donald Trump and calling slavery a choice. However, at the end of the day he has 28 million followers and that makes him highly influential.

4. Scott Rogowsky

Source: YouTube I think the best way to describe this bloke would be as that of an online gameshow host. Rogowsky, a comedian by profession, landed the gig of hosting an app gameshow called HQ Trivia, also known simply as HQ. The show’s concept is already cool, but with the addition of Rogowsky, it’s become quite the phenomena. The show itself lets Android and iOS users answer questions and stand to win up to $25 000. The money’s good but with Rogowsky’s comedic chirps and banter, the show is considered absolutely great. A lot of his work is scripted, but he also goes off the cuff very often to add his unique comedic spin, and it’s earned him endearing nicknames from the fans like Trap Trebek and Quiz Daddy. HG Trivia in conjunction with this New York comedian reaches millions of players.

5. Ryan, aka Ryan ToysReview

Source: Tubefilter.com Now this has got to be the coolest job to have as a kid, maybe even an adult.  I cannot think of anything better. If ever there was a collective childhood dream, this would be it. This kid is 6 now but he began his online career three years ago when he reviewed 100 toys at the same time on YouTube. What followed was nothing short of a viral phenomenon, the extent of which now has his show getting millions, if not billions of views. And what does he do? He unboxes toys and fulfils the dreams of millions of kids out there. Let’s not forget YouTube’s monetary system, hard to master, but oh so lovely if you can! As one of its highest paid stars, little Ryan coins a cool $11 million a year.

In Conclusion

There you have it boys and girls, 5 of the 2018’s most influential people online. The internet has revolutionised life. In many ways it’s given everyone a fair chance at things like celebrity. It’s also watered down the concept dramatically. To put it another way, now that the playing fields are even, an interesting dichotomy has occurred, on which I think forces people to work harder. It’s created a climate in which only the truly exceptional can stand out, and in line with the dichotomy, the incredibly average also.