Finally, I get back to this blog and the next part of the #OcculTea discussion. It took me long enough, didn’t it?

We’re on Topic 2 today: Influencer Authenticity. Alright, I don’t consider myself an “Influencer.” Let’s face facts, most people have no idea who I am. Yet, lol. My opinions on this are definitely from the outside looking in, for the most part. I am on the Internet, so there will be a few things I’ll comment on from my own perspective, though.

Out of what I share on social media, how much of it is staged vs reality?:

At the moment, I don’t share anything personal in the way of religious or magical work online. I’m not sure where I’m standing with that at the moment.

I can’t see myself sharing pictures or videos of what I’m actually doing, no matter how picturesque they might be. There’s a number of reasons why not do to such things, in my opinion. I might share pictures or videos if I ever did work for someone else; but I’d only share it with them, not the entire World Wide Web.

What do I think staged vs reality is another question. And from this “outsider” I’m going to say that a good 95% of what is depicted online is staged, or outright faked. What can I say, I’m a skeptic.

This is where things start to get reallllllllly interesting

Do I think there is an element of censorship in online spaces? How do I decipher what is “appropriate” to share online vs what to keep privately? Is this based on “social media etiquette” or a personal preference?

Censorship. That’s a loaded word these days. There is some actual censorship in that each platform has its rules and regulations on what can be said on it. Its absolutely understandable. So yes, there is censorship but its nothing to be fearful of or angry about.

Is there peer-pressure based censorship? That’s another question. To my mind, most of that is related again, to which platform you’re talking about. But yes, it is out there, and on some platforms its out of control.

TikTok. TikTok is TikToxic. I have witnessed creators on that platform being canceled. Actually canceled. Not just bullied, but run off the platform (in one case several times) because of a video that somehow “offended”. Who did the video offend? Too often its defensive of someone who was allegedly defended. SO many white knights flying to defend the theoretically offended person of color.

Misunderstanding is rife; the vast majority of anger ridden youngsters (most of them are Gen Z) have no idea what they’re talking about, and there’s no explaining it. As a matter of fact, the more the victim tries to explain their stand, the worse the screams of APPROPRIATION!!!

They take everything out of its context. They do not have much knowledge of cultural history or what who did when or got what from whom. And they don’t care. They’re right.

There’s too damn much of that in the world. Everyone would rather be right than do the right thing.

How do I decipher what is “appropriate” to share online vs what to keep privately? Is this based on “social media etiquette” or a personal preference?

As far as the written word goes, I’d say I share just about everything that is mine to share. I’ll change names when its not mine to share. I don’t share information about other people, just myself. I don’t know if I’d say that’s necessarily “social media etiquette” as much as it is “media etiquette” as it was considered polite well before the Internet came around.

As far as pictorial evidence of what I do, or where I work (altars, etc.) I ask. Its really that simple. Its the same idea as changing names or not sharing stories that are not mine; if I take a picture of an altar, whichever altar, its not a picture of me. Its a picture of their space, and so its only polite to ask first.

I’d say its not quite either, then. Its really just polite, plain old etiquette. shrug

Have I ever encountered or heard of grifters in our community? Do I recognize them? What are significant signs of grifters in our community?

Now its getting juicy!

Yes. I have encountered grifters; grifters of many shapes and sizes, so to speak.

My favorite was a TikTok fellow who got angry and was trying to insult another creator, saying that she couldn’t even manage a basic glamor spell.

Ummmm…if you have to rely on and constantly use glamor spells to get work doing spells through TikTok? You’re not much of a witch. I know more than one who, with NO social media at all, NO glamor spells at all, is not only one of the most accurate witches I’ve ever known, she’s never had trouble finding work. It finds her.

The only thing that witch is fit to sell would be glamor spells. I wouldn’t trust him with any other work. Is he intentionally grifting? I wouldn’t make the accusation because I really don’t know. But I know he can’t be trusted, and that people are apparently paying him to conduct spellwork for them. Or at least that’s what he likes to make it look like online.

I suppose that’s one of the signs of a grifter, just being educated enough to know what is what, and logic enough to put 2 + 2 together.

Intuition will play in as well. Listening to that still, small voice that is screaming at you. Sometimes its much more abrupt and simple to see. That DM from that influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers that you adore, suddenly out of the blue, saying she got a feeling off of your picture and wants to “give” you a reading.

Personally, when I’m in the mood I love playing with those people. One of them said they had gotten a “feeling” off of my picture, when I was using a crystal formation as my pic. That was classic. They got SO upset they said my son would be dead in 24 hours. I don’t have any sons, let alone biological children.

Both my daughters adopted me when they were not only adults, but had their own children. I adore them like they were my own, and have known them since their vulnerable teenage years, but they’re not technically or legally my actual children.

The grifting of that sort is rife everywhere, on every platform on the internet. I’ve encountered it. But then, there are mundane scammers everywhere, so I’m not surprised in the least.

I despise, however, the ones who are obviously using their platforms to convince people to buy things that are absolutely wrong or unnecessary. Okay, I don’t know a witch alive who can resist crystals, that’s not worrisome in the least. But those lemon hex videos just make me want to scream. And cord cutting…so much cord cutting.

So there’s a lot of nonsense out there. Coincidentally I’m sure it occasionally appears to work, and so brings business. What’s that phrase, “a sucker is born every minute”? Its true. I don’t have any problem with it, honestly, except that they are requesting FAR TOO MUCH MONEY for services rendered, in most cases.

What tools are helpful to decipher information, and how can we as a community prevent widespread misinformation?

I’ve found, at least for me, that there’s a back-and-forth that’s necessary to ascertain truth. I’m an academic type, so I would stick to actual books, the nerdier the better. However, sticking to historical and/or archaeological resources only recreates a dead religion. Mine’s a living one.

In the witchcraft world, I’ve found some good information from books as well, but that alone isn’t going to assure the information is accurate, or that those spells work for your circumstances.

Experience combined with academics, combined with experience, combined with divination is the answer for me, at least. I’ve also found that discussions with someone whose opinion I trust can help clear out cobwebs when my logic isn’t logicking.

This is the real problem because I’ve seen so many people who want to jump right from wanting to be a powerful witch without any studying or practice or anything at all much. Read a book, and BAM! You’re a witch. Because, you know, after all, intention is the only thing that matters. That sentence alone has made more trouble in the witchcraft world than nearly any other sentence uttered. At least in the last 10 years or so.

What can the community do?

First problem, what community?

I’ve tried, very hard, in the past, to find such a beast. And I’ve failed horribly. For a number of reasons, several times actually, and I’ve learned a lot from both that experience and therapy. I don’t feel there is a community.

I feel there are people who think they ought to be in charge of a community. There are those who think they know what’s wrong, who’s wrong, and how to fix it all. But in a non-community full of people who don’t agree on more than one point at any one time, its awful hard to set “rules.”

Threefold law? Harm none? No particular rules at all? Black/white? Wait…no…its baneful now, not black. Grey? Polytheist? Witch? Wiccan? Heathen?

Its not a non-community, I suppose, as much as it is a loose affiliation of communities and loners who can’t agree on anything anyway, except perhaps their hatred of Christianity in most cases. That’s a whole different subject.

I don’t know that a non-community that can’t agree on what is correct and what isn’t correct can actually self-regulate scammers. Its bad enough now that the self-regulating world of TikTok likes to scream “APPROPRIATION!!!” any time a white person pulls out an egg. It just doesn’t seem possible or even a good idea to me.

How does a large following impact the perception of the creator? Does this immediately make them an “expert”? Or are there other assumptions as to why they may have a large following?

long, drawn out sigh…

I think my FB page for the business is about to hit 800, if I remember correctly. Yeah. NOT a big influencer/creator, not even close. So this one is definitely as seen from the outside!

Yes. It does impact the perception of the creator. For me, its for the worse. I don’t trust large creators as far as witchcraft or paganism goes. I’m actually less likely to believe them, normally. There’s a scale there. If there’s something they’ve done or are doing that I admire I might give them a little more authority. Maybe. On rare occasion. And honestly, that goes to everything.

Smaller creators have their place in the internet world, and honestly I trust them more. Not only because they’re smaller, and seem less of a “sell out,” but because they’re reachable. If I leave a comment, or a question, they’re more likely to see it and respond.

Larger creators don’t give an ish. You’re just a number, just another ad they’ve sold, or a potential client, or a potential buyer. Not a potential friend, rival, ally, consultant, conspirator, etc.

Larger creators also seem more fake to me. Maybe its just because they’re better produced, can spend money on a professional editor, and really good props. They pay attention to background and lighting, whereas a lot of us are lucky to upgrade a cell phone to film on.

They’re also, by and large, more attractive. Not necessarily physically although that’s a lot of it. Everything’s more attractive. They’re frolicking in deep woods amongst the bluebells, not a public park. They’re drinking herbal tea out of a classy cup-and-saucer instead of a tea bag out of a cheap mug. They have all the asthetics and none of the content.

Some of that, I believe, is also that to get to thousands of followers, you have to put out a lot of content. For some creators, its the same old Wicca 101 over-and-over-and-over. In order to keep your consumers coming back, you really do have to find that niche and stay in it. Making sure you give those consumers what they want.

Dear gods, that sounds dreadful to me.

I can see, easily, how dreadful and boring that could get. How it would suck the inspiration out of the creator and leave them feeling, and sounding flat. They might realize what’s happening, they might not. *shrug*

I don’t follow large creators, for the most part. Larger than me, sure, because everyone is. 😀 But the really big ones? No. I mean, some of that is because there aren’t that many creators covering information I would want.

I will say though, that’s true of most topics but not all. There are some history YouTube channels that I adore, and they’re pretty huge. They’re informational and entertainment, but generally I know just enough about the history they’re covering to get out if its not quite right.

How does one maintain the balance of authenticity and content creation?

To thine own self be true

That’s it. The creators that I will follow, regardless of size, are the ones that are authentically themselves. They speak from their heart, often off the cuff with no script or preconceived theme. I can’t get enough of that. They’re human. They’re relatable. They’re believable.

If a creator can resist following the money, and not simply pump out content that pleases one majority of their audience instead of speaking their truth, they’ll get my attention. But that’s not how to grow an audience usually, and the temptation to go after the big bucks is too great. I get it, if you’re going to put the effort into it, you want to make a decent living at it.

Its just not going to keep my attention. But then, I don’t assume I’m the target audience. Many people in this non-community seem to be happy to watch pretty nonsense instead of gritty truth.

Looks like there might have to be a part 3; we’ll see how long it takes me to finish THAT one, lol!