Half of us want to be online influencers – survey

Almost half of adults aspire to be online influencers, a new survey has found, with one in five rating recognition on social media as more valuable than recognition from their boss.

The research, carried out on behalf of broadband company Pure Telecom, found a third of adults would like to work as an influencer in addition to holding down their regular job, while 13 per cent would like it be their main source of income.

The potential career path was most popular among those classed as “Gen Z”, with more than three-quarters harbouring ambitions of working as an influencer. Men were found to be more likely to want to pursue that route than women, at 58 per cent to 45 per cent.

Millennials also had strong ambitions towards such a career, at 47 per cent, while only 34 per cent of Gen X wanted to be social media influencers, and only 25 per cent of Baby Boomers.

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"The online world now forms a significant part of our daily lives. So much of what we do is now online - socialising, shopping, learning – so it's natural that many people want their careers to be online, too," said Paul Connell, chief executive of Pure Telecom. "We always expect the younger generations to be more drawn to the digital world, but it is interesting to see that even the older generations have aspirations of becoming influencers. And, our research shows that a significant proportion of all generations believe that recognition on social media trumps praise from their boss!"

The survey was independently conducted by Censuswide and included more than 1,000 adults across Ireland.