JUST last week, or rather the past few months, we have seen a lot of stories of parents refusing to vaccinate their children against certain diseases.
While many of these cases may not have taken place in Malaysia, we too have a worrying number of children who have not been vaccinated.
What caught my attention were the names that call the shots when it comes to vaccinations.
Jim Carey, Mayim Bialik, Hugh Hefner (when he was alive) and Jenny McCarthy are a few of the celebrities who have spoken out against the vaccination of children.
From measles, rubella, cholera, meningococcal disease, influenza, diphtheria, mumps and to tetanus, among the diseases you could avoid via vaccination, I just can’t fathom how anyone would rather let their child suffer by listening to these so called “influencers”.
Before I continue, I think all “anti vaxxers and flat earthers” make the best partners.
Why? One believes the world revolves around their kids and the other believes the world doesn’t revolve at all.
If you listen to both their points, only if you are a reasonably sound individual will you realise they make no sense.
However, since I am not a PhD holder unlike some of them, I will not indulge in this topic but I want to talk about these individuals who call themselves “influencers”.
“Influencers,” as we call them today, are closer to TV stars than they are to your average Joe.
While their 10,000-100,000 or more followers may provide the attention factor marketeers seek, it turns out they’re not as influential as you’d think.
They are a unique breed of individual who want to be known for their “original” thoughts and self-inflated authority.
Based on my understanding, “influencers” have influence over people who can’t think for themselves. It’s not difficult to persuade people to think something when they don’t have a mind of their own, and that is what is happening with anti-vaccination campaigns around the world.
Not everyone’s decision depends on what someone else says or thinks, therefore an endorsement means very little in many people’s decision making, which is relieving.
These so called “influencers” are already becoming an issue around the world, never mind Malaysia. Because, most often, these people tend to send out the wrong message to the wrong crowd.
Let’s be honest, a CEO of a company may want to hire a social media “influencer” to promote his product, but he and his peers probably won’t even look into the content of these “influencers”.
The target group of these “influencers” are often social media users. Whilst they become famous by either using a word resembling women’s private part, attempt to run away with a shoe from a sports outlet, giving toy reviews, or as shady as calling on hate speech, and most recently the “Jangan Bayar Challenge”, it’s worrying how much power these people have gained.
However, who’s to blame? Corporations which want to get marketing done on a cheap or us as consumers who are entertained by their antics and messages?
Personally I must admit, some of them are pretty funny, sometimes. But without entirely having any originality, it just beats me how they rose to fame so easily.
What I am trying to say is, some of them portray the wrong message to the wrong group of people.
As I have mentioned above, not all but some of their challenges, videos and messages have caused fatalities, and it couldn’t go worse than that.
Having fame and being noticeable is pretty great. But sending the right message out to all their young, and some not so smart fans, will be even greater.
To end this, I am very happy and proud that the Malaysian “influencers” did not come out and support the anti vaccination movement, and none of them are flat earth believers.
However, let us all Malaysian have a mind of our own, because that’s rare and valuable and sacred. And that’s the only way to move this nation forward.
