Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks – ‘a generally excellent book’
This book offers a fascinating window into the writer's inner life
Influencers, it’s fair to say, don’t enjoy a good press, said Elle Hunt in New Scientist. Since the word took on a new meaning in the mid-2010s – standing for those paid by brands to endorse their products online – it has been “tied to an image of a young woman hawking dubious diet teas to boost her currency on social media”.
Yet in this rigorous and authoritative book, Olivia Yallop argues that we should take the phenomenon seriously. For a start, influencing is big business: it is worth at least $10bn per year globally. For another, its emergence connects to broader changes in the realms of advertising, work and online culture.
Yallop, a digital strategist, is an ideal guide to this “bizarre and chaotic” world, said Eleanor Margolis in The Guardian. Many of her chapters are “gonzo dispatches” – from an “influencer bootcamp” she attends, or “a VIP influencer party with a ‘million follower’ policy”. Yet her book also considers broad themes such as “the commodification of the self, and the increasingly blurred line between leisure and work”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Top influencers earn astonishing sums, said James Bloodworth in The Times. PewDiePie (above), a Swedish YouTuber best known for films of himself playing video games, pulls in around $8m a month. That’s modest compared with ten-year-old “kidfluencer” Ryan Kaji – the highest-paid YouTuber of 2020 – who raked in $29.5m from advertising and $200m from merchandise for his “unboxing videos”, or toy reviews.
But such cases, Yallop reminds us, are very rare: few online content creators become wealthy, and most are prey to the same problems – low pay and a lack of job security – that “immiserate others working in the creative industries”. Refreshingly free of the “usual sneering anti-influencer condescension”, Break the Internet is “persuasive and well-written”.
Scribe 288pp £16.99; The Week Bookshop £13.99
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
4 ways to give back this holiday season
The Explainer If your budget is feeling squeezed, remember that money is not the only way you can be generous around the holidays
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
4 tips for hosting an ecofriendly Thanksgiving
The Week Recommends Coming together for the holidays typically produces a ton of waste, but with proper preparation, you can have an environmentally friendly gathering.
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appeal
Speed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Damian Barr shares his favourite books
The Week Recommends The writer and broadcaster picks works by Alice Walker, Elif Shafak and others
By The Week UK Published
-
The Great Mughals: a 'treasure trove' of an exhibition
The Week Recommends The V&A's new show is 'spell-binding'
By The Week UK Published
-
Aston Martin Vanquish: 'the best Aston Martin full stop'?
The Week Recommends The third-generation Vanquish 'offers spectacular performance'
By The Week UK Published
-
Her Lotus Year: Paul French's new biography sets lurid rumours straight
The Week Recommends Wallis Simpson's year in China is less scandalous, but 'more interesting' than previously thought
By The Week UK Published
-
Say Nothing: 'sensational' dramatisation of Patrick Radden Keefe's bestselling book
The Week Recommends The series is a 'powerful reminder' of the Troubles
By The Week UK Published
-
Joy: fertility film starring Bill Nighy offers 'dose of seasonal cheer'
The Week Recommends The film about the invention of the fertility treatment is 'unassuming' but may 'sneak up on you'
By The Week UK Published
-
Ed Park's 6 favorite works about self reflection and human connection
Feature The Pulitzer Prize finalist recommends works by Jason Rekulak, Gillian Linden, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 fantastic homes in Columbus, Ohio
Feature Featuring a 1915 redbrick Victorian in German Village and a modern farmhouse in Woodland Park
By The Week Staff Published