Now you can study to become a Kardashian

One of the Kardashians, or maybe it was a Jenner, recently declared she was sick of people wanting to become influencers like her simply because they considered it easy.

You have to get up early every day, she warned; you have to turn up and work hard. That’s how you become a success: you work hard. Like she did.

Indeed.

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Being part of a well-connected family with a popular fly-on-the-wall TV show – season four is currently happening I think, but who can keep up with the Kardashians? – is presumably incidental.

Happily for these annoying wannabes, a university in Ireland has now introduced an actual degree in influencing.

Imagine that on your CV: “BA (Influencer)” or even “PhD (Influencer)” with a three-year thesis on Dogs of Instagram topping your list of academic achievements – in my case centred around my favourite influencer, an immaculately-dressed Italian greyhound called Tika.

In truth, this new degree – officially a BA in content creation and social media – sounds decent enough. It’s basically marketing with business science, public relations and film editing thrown in.

And a lot of young folk do want to be influencers. When my goddaughter was living with me and I asked what she intended doing with her life – code for “get off the couch, dammit” – she said she wanted her own YouTube channel.

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She’s now a waitress. A lot of wannabe influencers are waitresses. But the fantasy is understandable. People only know what they see – for her, unemployment, drudgery, boredom – and then we may dream another life.

When I was young, long before influencers were invented, I saw teachers, nurses, secretaries, accountants and people working on the mines. There were no film directors or artists in my life, no actors, no journalists, no game rangers. Those were my fantasies though.

Instead I went to nursing college. I worked in a bank. I waitressed. It took me a while to find a place where I wanted to be, in writing. Crucially I had to shapeshift to fit in. Don’t we all?

So dreaming of being an influencer, of seemingly being admired and adored – and paid – simply for being your fabulous self is eminently reasonable.

But oh, how I wish I was a game ranger.