How would you feel if your favorite influencers were not being safe during the pandemic? 

I would be shocked to learn that the very people who are telling us to stay six feet apart and wear a mask are not doing the same. Being safe in a pandemic is not a pick and choose situation; many are dying because some people have chosen not to follow simple guidelines. 

Covid-19 is a worldwide pandemic that has affected millions of people around the world.  It has been especially hard on older people and people with medical conditions like diabetes or lung disease. The virus, however, does not stop with only those who are susceptible as it has taken its toll on even the young and healthy. All of this is what makes precautions a huge deal.

Fortunately for the world, we have medical experts and front-line workers like Dr. Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who has been doing all that he can to help people understand and protect themselves from the virus. He and many others have been working to develop a vaccine for this deadly virus as we speak.

One common recommendation to protect ourselves has been asking people to stay away from one another and wear masks. Many influencers and celebrities are spreading this message around, but do some mean it?

Before we get into the hypocrisy of these individuals, we need to differentiate between an influencer and a celebrity. A celebrity is a famous person who is well-known for their work whether it be acting, singing, dancing, cooking, or even hosting. An influencer is someone who has a platform based and started on social media and who has seen its impact expand from there.

If you follow any influencers or celebrities you would see posts about Coronavirus. If you haven’t seen any, here are some examples up there.

These posts have been all over social media attempting to bring awareness about staying away and wearing masks. Many politicians, singers, models, and others have done their part by spreading awareness. The ones who have not done their part face backlash and hate. It is so bad that many celebrities and influencers post or tweet awareness as a “trend,” because the moment they stop, they become irrelevant or get canceled. Some celebrities have been pressured so much by their fandom that they don’t feel comfortable using social media, so they tend to avoid it or cut off completely.

One of social media’s greatest celebrities is Selena Gomez, who has been having a hard time with this fame. Selena is an actress from many TV shows and movies from the 2000s and 2010s. She is also a singer, with three released albums, and 29 singles. How could someone like her be pressured by her fans?

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Selena Gomez discusses in the 2019 Cannes Film Festival press conference about the effects of social media by saying, “Social media has been terrible for my generation. I understand it’s amazing to use your platform, but it does scare me.” She goes on to say “I don’t do a lot of pointless pictures. For me, I like to be intentional with it. It just scares me.”

Many people still question her being pressured, because of her still posting to this day, and Selena responds by saying in an interview with Zach Sang on October 27, 2019 stating, “I am now starting back on Instagram. It is very weird, I don’t have it on my phone but I’ve been using on…you know my friend’s phone to do lives and all that stuff but that I mean, took me two years to really get there.”

Selena Gomez is one of the types of people who make change happen, and is accountable for it. The way she takes a break from social media because of the stress and fans shows that she is serious, about what she is saying and how it affects others.

As we have people like Selena Gomez who are kind-hearted and caring, others can be quite deceitful and two-faced. Some of the new rising influencers have a tough time learning right and wrong. They think that what they post is all that matters, but they are wrong, people care about their safety more than words.  

As you can see from above, these “famous,” influencers are caught not wearing masks in public by a reporter from Hollywood Fix, a channel where they follow influencers, and film what they do. Some of these influencers are known for having young viewers watching them, and learning for them. Their actions define so many children’s actions and what they are doing, is sending the wrong message in the time of Covid-19.

The image with the girls, was from a Hollywood Fix video on July, 3rd, of Oliva Proton, Nessa Barret, and Lauren Kettering. In this interview they are shown talking about recent media, they are also in a public place, without even attempting to have a mask in their hands or wearing one. The media they were discussing should not be what’s stopping them from wearing a mask.

“Hype House Bus Tour With Alex Warren,” was another video released from Hollywood Fix on August 24th filming the “Hype House” members with their new bus. The “Hype House” is a place/group where collective Tik Tok users go to in L.A to release content.

The video had included many members of the “Hype House,” like Alex Warren, Thomas Petrou, Mia Hayward, Kouvr Annon, Jack Wright, James Wright, Calvin Goldboy, and Patrick Hutson. They were all close to each other but distanced themselves from the reporter in the beginning, but it stopped when the reporter went inside of the bus to film, and he was close to many of the people in there and none of them wore masks around each other.

One other major celebrity is Kendall Jenner. These pictures are from Jenner’s 25th birthday/Halloween party in 2020. She specifically told her guests to take pictures and not post them because she knew many people would start posting about her and she would face major backlash for this party. Well her sister, Kylie did not listen and she posted some of these photos from above.

This was an exclusive party to celebrate Kendall’s birthday and many rising stars and singers were there like The Weekend and Doja Cat. According to reports – and some of the pictures – there was no social distancing at the party and no one was wearing masks. In the picture, you can see people in the background, huddled, and conversing. The only people found to wear masks were the workers, who were trying not to catch Covid.

As we see from the actions of the influencers and celebrities, some of the people we look up to are lying to us. In a time of such importance, the public needs to start calling them out, telling them that what they are doing is wrong and that they must stop being so flippant with social distancing and safety rules. Lying on a screen is one thing, but endangering people’s lives is another issue altogether.