”Influencers is another term and "career" that fills me with worry for society. Truly, it feels like the last days of Rome.”
100% agree.
Honestly I tend to think that it really depends on the specific nature of what's being done.
A lot of Youtubers... which the word "influencers" can apply to... arent doing the sort of things you might see on, say, Twitter or Tiktok. I would honestly compare them more to traditional "celebrities" or actors like you might find in the movie and TV business. Often, a TON of effort goes into any given video, way more than the viewer thinks. Anyone who thinks being a Youtuber is an easy job clearly doesnt know much about how it often works. This can apply both to the super well-known Youtubers, and also the smaller ones. Unlike more traditional actors/celebrities, most Youtubers do their own editing and such... they dont have giant professional crews to do it for them (and they also dont have crew members whose entire bloody function is JUST catering to every little need of theirs, either).
Now, the sort of junk you're probably thinking of on Twitter or Tiktok can be a very different story. They're usually wobbly, badly edited if at all (at most, they might have some text on it, and that's it, usually badly placed). They clearly have next to no effort in them and tend to be about very stupid/mindless things. Which sorta makes sense for the format, which is super tiny things usually shot with a phone.
Though, even there, there absolutely are exceptions.
Just as an example:
That's less than a minute long, it's done in the same format used on Tiktok, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that it took at least a couple of hours to make. And that's using 3D models that the Youtuber herself made to use in her videos (one of which, as far as I can tell, is unique to JUST this short). Animation is bloody difficult, singing well aint easy (and probably needed multiple takes) and of course the already complex animation must be synced with that. No... this would have taken more than just "a couple of hours", when I think about it.
And yes I know that's Youtube, not Tiktok, but the format is the exact same and the derp factor for many of the Shorts you find on there are just as dumb. But also, some of the higher-quality mini-vids, like that one, can be found on Tiktok too.
The problem of course is that the super dumb ones often float to the top, but hey, that's just how it goes with any form of media. You want quality? Your browsing and searching needs to also be of quality. Dont just settle for the first thing you see and go "there's nothing good here".
It's real easy to just assume that something like a job/career in these sorts of things is dumb and easy, but remember, it's very, very easy to have a sort of auto-bias against something that is new and unknown.