Influencers as media significant others: modern trends of secondary socialization

The article investigates the phenomenon of influencers from a sociological point of view. This concept of great current interest was defined in the article on the base of multiple sources. The study integrates the main concepts of literature on social media influencers, secondary research data and the results of interview conducted by the authors. The authors give a comparison between different approaches with highlighting common features of influencers. They emphasize the trend of domestic scholars to identify an influencer and an opinion leader, as well as to refer influencers to the promotion of goods and services only. This study proposes consideration of Lazarsfeld’s two-step communication flow theory as an alternative view regarding the foregoing approach to influencers and opinion leaders (the term initially set by Lazarsfeld in the framework of above indicated theory). Therefore, the paper proposes to use a more correct term «media significant other» which is explored in this article together with interrelation to the term «influencer». The authors also question the idea that influencers can have an impact in the field of sales only. The hypothesis of comprehensive nature of influence has been confirmed by the results of a sociological interview: 72 people were interviewed, and the results of the research demonstrate that the social impact of influencers is increasing and extending to various spheres of public life. The impact of the COVID issue on social network communications is also discussed. The authors conclude that the degree of exposure to influencers depends on the age of an individual and concerns almost all spheres of life.