What the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce media storm can teach students about finding their influencers
Twelve-time Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter Taylor Swift is not just about creating successful music for her fans, but also leaving a positive impact on the community wherever she goes. Between her work with Make-A-Wish, her music education program, countless donations to food banks all over the country, and her $4 million dollar donation to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Swift reveals the importance of being a positive influence on students.
Taylor Swift has amassed over 270 million followers on Instagram and brought in over a billion dollars in gross revenue from her tour. It’s no secret that she is a leader for her fans, musicians, and students around the world, but her fan base got quite a bit larger over the past weekend.
Recently, news outlets have caught wind of a rumored romance between the pop sensation and NFL star Travis Kelce, sparking a media storm that extends beyond music and sports.
What can this swirl of celebrity gossip teach us about social media’s influence? And how is this impacting students? Let’s dive in!
How Swift’s New Relationship is Reshaping The Media
As Taylor Swift continues to show up in headlines with her presence at NFL games and cozy outings with Travis Kelce, the public’s obsession with her personal life takes center stage. Swift, an influential figure in pop culture, seamlessly blends music, celebrity relationships, and public appearances.
Because of Swift’s strong social media influence, her relationship with Kelce combined the football and Swiftie fan bases, completely reshaping the NFL’s marketing strategy. Swift’s newfound relationship with Kelce increased his jersey sales by over 400% and increased NFL viewership by over 60%.
The media frenzy surrounding her rumored romance with Kelce highlights the power of influence not only in the entertainment world but also on social media platforms where fan discussions and speculations abound. Her actions reveal not only how social and entertainment media influence students’ interests, but their behavior outside of the platforms, as well, such as tuning into a football game for the first time.
What Educators Need to Know: The Link between Students and Influencers
Outside of what we know about Taylor Swift’s influence on social media, the National Library of Medicine recently posted a Middle-Eastern research study revealing that Social Media Influencers (SMI’s) significantly influence young and teenage students’ intellectual, social, ethical, and healthy aspects. While it might seem unrelated, understanding the dynamics of social media influence, especially pertaining to celebrities like Taylor Swift, is crucial for educators to recognize that social media influencers do have a strong impact on their students’ well-being.
Students are navigating social worlds where pop culture, celebrity news, and personal interactions collide. As of 2021, roughly 70% of teen students follow some social media influencer. What this means is that the majority of students are actively being impacted by influencers online each day. While these influencers have the power to inspire students and promote positivity, such as Taylor Swift, who inspires students with her music and her charity work, there are influencers who promote a dangerous lifestyle and pessimistic behavior.
While we know that some social media influencers positively impact students, it’s important for educators to be aware of the social influencers that negatively shape students’ conversations, interests, and, ultimately, their online behavior. Not only do negative influences impact these aspects of student life, but they can also harm students’ mental and emotional health, which translates into their academics, as research shows that depression and anxiety are associated with lower grade point averages.
Integrating discussions around social media influence into the curriculum can help students develop critical thinking skills and help them find strong, positive influencers online.
TSI’s Take
Taylor Swift stands as a powerful social influencer for fans and students alike. Her influence over the media, social trends, and now even the NFL goes to show just how much influencers impact the daily lives of students. By knowing this, educators can huddle with their students on the people they follow online, and how it impacts them on a daily basis, whether that be their buying behavior, their interests, or even their mental well-being. Here are some tips to help students find their influencers online:
When huddling with your students, have them ask themselves these questions when following people on social media:
- Does this person align with what I value?
- Is this person’s content relevant to me and what I am interested in?
- Is this person someone I want to be like?
If the answer is yes to all, then this is likely a good influencer to follow! However, students should also evaluate profiles with these questions:
- Does this person comment or post content that is hurtful to myself or others?
- Does this person make me feel bad about myself?
- Does this person influence me to act in a way that either others or myself would not be proud of?
If the answer to any of these is yes, then that is likely a person to avoid on social media.
For more ways to empower students to find their influencers and make positive, high-character decisions online, check out The Social Institute’s playbook on setting a positive example in the classroom.
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The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in empowering students by understanding students. Through #WinAtSocial, our gamified, peer-to-peer learning platform, we equip students, educators, and families to navigate their social world – in the classroom and beyond, online and offline – in healthy, high-character ways. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips, rather than scares and restricts. We incorporate timely topics about social media, tech use, and current events that are impacting student well-being and learning. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach life skills for the modern day, capture student voice, and provide school leaders with actionable insights. Through these insights, students play an essential role in school efforts to support their own health, happiness, and future success as we enable high-impact teaching, meaningful family conversations, and a healthy school culture.