I try to be modest, I really do, but the thing is, I am an Instagram influencer. I know this is a surprise to most of you that I am an influencer, being that I am not the coolest nor the most beautiful writer at the Lawrentian, but I am telling the honest-to-God truth. I happen to be an ASMR-tist, if you will. An ASMR-tist (portmanteau of ASMR and artist) is someone who creates original ASMR content to entertain the masses. Whether it be slime makers, floral foamers or my personal favorite, the soap cutters, ASMR-tists like myself gain an Instagram following that offers lucrative opportunities to make money and further their popularity on the platform.
As I previously mentioned, I am an ASMR-tist. I run the Instagram soap cutting account called “wecutsoaps” and my following at this moment in time is just over 1,700 followers. Unfortunately, with a large and ever growing following like mine comes many loud mouths critiquing my art form. As a celebrity, I have been critiqued and even flat-out bullied for everything that shows up on my Instagram page.
Allow me to begin with the less mean comments I have received. The milder ones usually critique the methods by which I cut soap or the composition of the video. On a video where I cut a bar of scored aloe and cucumber Lever 2000, one of the comments, originally left in Russian, questions why I cut the soap when it was not fully dry yet. I appreciate this kind of constructive questioning, as I agree with the comment that insinuated that I cut the soap at the wrong time. I also get a lot of comments asking why exactly I cut soap and some even who call it wasteful. These do not bother me, as they are easily answered. I cut soap because I like it, and it is not wasteful because I repurpose the soap into new bars of soap to either use or cut up some more. I also get the occasional commenter who came to my page via the Discover page on Instagram, like this comment: “Why is this s*** showing up in my feed?” Some comments I can tell are negative, but I do not know what they are saying, like this one: “Can u start doing it with ur glows on it would look much better.”
These comments, while sometimes discouraging, do not shake me nearly as much as the ones that comment on my appearance. Though I do not show much besides my hands, you would be surprised the amount of absolute hate I receive regarding these fingies, baby! Some of my favorites include, “It’s [sic] f****** thumb is disgusting,” “Why this girl finger look like a minion been trynna eat it,” and “Lol ur nails.” Though these comments are rude and objectively count as bullying, I have the calloused hands of a worker and can disregard the mean comments. There was one comment that did make my heart sink, even though I am this toughened-up influencer that can handle anything life throws at me. This comment said something along the lines of, “you can tell she’s fat because of her hands.” It was shocking to see someone say this to me, especially on a video where I am just cutting soap for auditory pleasure. Like, not to be that person, but it did really hurt my feelings that this person said this to me. It made me even more upset that my mom saw the comment. I could tell it made her so upset to see someone out of nowhere saying, “you can tell she’s fat because of her hands.” Honestly can you even believe someone said this on an ASMR video? Who knew that being an influencer meant receiving such hate like this. I guess I should have expected that a large following brings larger opinions.
I know I am not the first to share a history of cyber-bullying, and I am not going to preach about the horrible repercussions of cyber-bullying either, as I think we have all heard about it before. I have been bullied in person and online, neither of which have caused me an unbearable amount of agony. But that is my problem: I think the ever common presence of forms of bullying in our generation have caused a sort of tolerance for it, which is not necessarily the best way to handle bullying. There is this rhetoric around bullying that says you must have a tough skin and not care about what people say. I do not believe that this is the best way to deal with bullying. Suppressing your emotions has never been my way, and I do not see why bullying should be any different. I think we should focus less on this idea that you must stand up to bullies and focus more on discouraging bullying.
I think this is just a small part of a discourse that should be continuous throughout not only schooling but over the internet as well. Anyways, please follow my ASMR Instagram @wecutsoaps and leave a nice, encouraging comment.
