This book shows that seemingly harmless social media feeds are powerful engines of distorted reality

When information floods every feed and traditional gatekeepers lose credibility, audiences default to tribal trust – believing what their group believes, following voices that feel familiar. Influencers fill this vacuum not through expertise but through emotional proximity. They don’t need credentials; they need consistency. They don’t cite sources; they cite lived experience. And in a landscape where verification costs exceed the reward of truth, their repeated presence becomes its own form of evidence.

The influencer’s power lies not in what they know but in how they make audiences feel, i.e., seen, validated and part of a shared mission. This is the architecture of modern influence: authenticity engineered, intimacy at scale, conviction manufactured through regularity. What once required institutional authority – the credibility to shape public opinion – now requires only algorithmic persistence. The more someone appears on your feed, the more trustworthy they seem. Repetition becomes reliability; familiarity becomes truth.

The influencer economy promised to democratise voice and in many ways it did. A Delhi home cook, a small-town fitness enthusiast, a college comic: each found an audience legacy media never would have granted. That has turned persuasion into a profession, far beyond the old model of celebrity endorsements.

Where a Shah Rukh Khan...

Read more