Running head: QUESTIONING THE ETHOS OF INFLUENCER SCHATZEL 1

Naked Honesty: Questioning the Ethos of Influencer Schatzel

Dulce Lunaly Garcia Guzman

Composition, Arkansas State University–Queretaro

ENG 1003: Composition I

Professor Chera King

February 28, 2021

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Should we start questioning the ethos of influencers?

The Russian influencer Kris Schatzel was criticized for treating Black Lives Matter

protests like a fashion runway. Some people argue that Schatzel was following orders from her

modeling agency. Since she was working, she was not able to make her own decisions. However,

others believe the lack of empathy, misinformation, and dishonesty in her actions were what

mattered the most. Rather than a common objective, all social media sites are well-known to be a

mass of individuals vying against each other for support, likes, followers, retweets, or whatever

type of approval exists for society. I believe the actions of the Russian influencer were not

adequate and demonstrate a contradictory and cynical ethos.

Social media, entrepreneurs, activists, and influencers have arisen during the first two

decades of the twenty-first century. Their appearance on media had made a complete change in

peoples' perception, trustfulness, and living. Because of the new media, influencers enjoy public

attention; that is why the "influence" on society is inevitable. In addition to their lack of

uprightness (inside influencer's community), their acts and background can miscarriage the

whole message to the point they have to deal with the negative consequences of being

excessively arrogant and false. As we saw in Schatzel's video, any wrong step can lead to the

cancellation. In this case, she was unconscious, ignorant, antipathetic, and self-centered; the

community recognized her unethical behavior and asked for apologies.

Social media has exposed people to extreme detail on how the popular ones live. The

reality is that we judge by what we can see. We think influencers are actual experts, authority,

inspirational people, and we can rely on them. The truth is that instead of taking their influence

as an example of personal growth, we live to compare ourselves with them. When influencers

only show the "positive," we start thinking we are not enough when, in fact, we are experiencing
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manipulation with the idea we need to have certain things they casually have or add to our lives.

In this video, she was confident about her falseness because her bubble was only through what

we saw online. Then someone caught her shamelessly. It was clear that when the perfectness

disappears, the only thing that stays is who they are. They are narcissists and not the role models

we used to think.

Just after the influencer went viral, she turned her Instagram account private. However,

she shared a response to the critics, saying: "I hope we can all focus on the true cause as to why

we are all here." Without demanding unreal perfection, something clear to say is that there is not

a single social media professional, business, or individual who has mastered rhetorical and ethos

effectiveness. But she sadly made fun of the BLM movement and had to pay the consequences of

being false. Media is constantly evolving and adjusting to fit the mold of who and what we need

to feel accomplished. Knowing that for them is all about marketing, we should stop believing in

appearances. Is this case a good reason to stop blindly trusting in them?

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References

Dazed. (2020, June 6). An influencer responds to backlash for a Black Lives Matter protest

selfie. https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/49469/1/influencer-responds-

backlash-staging-photos-during-black-lives-matter-protest

(n.d.). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2019/12/20/can-we-trust-social-media-

influencers/?sh=79a5c43f63e8
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