#9 Influence

I am an influential person. I know this to be true. It’s been this way all of my life. It’s something I’ve learned to try to temper and make healthy for the people I love. The people who haunt my spaces.We can influence people or events in ways that are profoundly positive or positively awful—the choice is ours.The question here, for this application, is whether I value that influence. Whether you value influence.Because we are all influential people. We are like a great painting, all of our colors and hues and pigments touch and work in combination to create the larger whole. We’re all influenced by one another, and while that carries the potential of abuse or mistreatment of the other, it’s also an honor to be in relationship like that, right?Let’s talk about influencers. It’s 2025 and we are surrounded on all sides by people demanding we be influenced by them. And I suppose we are. Perhaps not directly in all cases—I am beholden to very few members of the zeitgeist of TikTok and Instagram and... I don’t know? Discord servers, probably? Snaps.Every day we are aggressively advertised to on a nearly minute-by-minute basis, right? It’s everywhere. It’s the water we’re swimming in, to the point that my kids don’t probably recognize it for what it is.I recall being advertised at on Saturday mornings during cartoon shows. Commercials were more ubiquitous back then. Advertisers, (corporate influencers), could only afford to show the world one thing at a time, it was out there, it was public. Yo Quiero Taco Bell. We all yo quiero-ed the Taco Bell at the same time. We all saw the same Wheaties commercial. We all saw the same “Where’s the Beef” ad, at the same time, on the same channel.Now everything is so ugly and crafted. So tailored specifically for us, for our own individual preferences and proclivities. It’s maddening for those a******s to be so right about what I’d be interested in so often. I am repelled by my own susceptibility to these messages honed in corporate boardrooms in order to extract an additional dollar from me.My children are less impacted by influencers than average because I closely gate-keep their involvement with social media, a sickly, filthy, untamed underbelly of society indeed. But I’m not foolish enough to think they’re uninfluenced. My middle child is watching a minecraft video on Youtube as I write this. In contrast to the TV commercials of my youth, my son’s experience is largely private, secret, quiet.I am more than just a little bit concerned that this channel will funnel him into some kind of freakish white nationalistic hellscape from which there may be no easy return. Such is the nature of raising kids today. This is the hellscape. Walk ye in it.When influence is peddled it is filthy. When influence is informed by greed or avarice. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all lived through it. It’s gross.When it just is, when it just occurs naturally between lovers or friends, it can be beautiful. Why, I attempt to influence my own kids every day. I attempt to influence my customers and my friends toward kindness and empathy and love and affection for fellow humans.We must be mindful of the ways advertisers would pretend to be friends or advocates. We must be mindful of the way(s) that influencers are coming for us. Coming for our children. The ways they will influence a fool from his money. And more than money, from his time, his treasure, his goodwill toward others.How are you influenced? And how do you influence others? Will you bludgeon others with extractive influence, designed to protect yours alone? Or will your influence be remembered after your name is forgotten?I am an influential person. I know this to be true. It’s been this way all of my life. It’s something I’ve learned to try to temper and make healthy for the people I love. The people who haunt my spaces. We can influence people or events in ways that are profoundly positive or positively awful—the choice is ours. The question here, for this application, is whether I value that influence. Whether you value influence.Because we are all influential people. We are like a great painting, all of our colors and hues and pigments touch and work in combination to create the larger whole. We’re all influenced by one another, and while that carries the potential of abuse or mistreatment of the other, it’s also an honor to be in relationship like that, right?Let’s talk about influencers. It’s 2025 and we are surrounded on all sides by people demanding we be influenced by them. And I suppose we are. Perhaps not directly in all cases—I am beholden to very few members of the zeitgeist of TikTok and Instagram and... I don’t know? Discord servers, probably? Snaps.Every day we are aggressively advertised to on a nearly minute-by-minute basis, right? It’s everywhere. It’s the water we’re swimming in, to the point that my kids don’t probably recognize it for what it is. I recall being advertised at on Saturday mornings during cartoon shows. Commercials were more ubiquitous back then. Advertisers, (corporate influencers), could only afford to show the world one thing at a time, it was out there, it was public. Yo Quiero Taco Bell. We all yo quiero-ed the Taco Bell at the same time. We all saw the same Wheaties commercial. We all saw the same “Where’s the Beef” ad, at the same time, on the same channel. Now everything is so ugly and crafted. So tailored specifically for us, for our own individual preferences and proclivities. It’s maddening for those a******s to be so right about what I’d be interested in so often. I am repelled by my own susceptibility to these messages honed in corporate boardrooms in order to extract an additional dollar from me. My children are less impacted by influencers than average because I closely gate-keep their involvement with social media, a sickly, filthy, untamed underbelly of society indeed. But I’m not foolish enough to think they’re uninfluenced. My middle child is watching a minecraft video on Youtube as I write this. In contrast to the TV commercials of my youth, my son’s experience is largely private, secret, quiet. I am more than just a little bit concerned that this channel will funnel him into some kind of freakish white nationalistic hellscape from which there may be no easy return. Such is the nature of raising kids today. This is the hellscape. Walk ye in it. When influence is peddled it is filthy. When influence is informed by greed or avarice. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all lived through it. It’s gross. When it just is, when it just occurs naturally between lovers or friends, it can be beautiful. Why, I attempt to influence my own kids every day. I attempt to influence my customers and my friends toward kindness and empathy and love and affection for fellow humans. We must be mindful of the ways advertisers would pretend to be friends or advocates. We must be mindful of the way(s) that influencers are coming for us. Coming for our children. The ways they will influence a fool from his money. And more than money, from his time, his treasure, his goodwill toward others. How are you influenced? And how do you influence others? Will you bludgeon others with extractive influence, designed to protect yours alone? Or will your influence be remembered after your name is forgotten? Get full access to Nick Walton at nickfromoregon.substack.com/subscribe