This is a great article because it tries to look into not just what the distinction is between “creator” and “influencer,” but also why anyone cares about that

This is a great article because it tries to look into not just what the distinction is between “creator” and “influencer,” but also why anyone cares about that distinction. There are a lot of distinctions that make hard sense in one’s life: between a coral snake and a king snake, or between a car that is parked and a car that is moving. This is not one of those; no one’s welfare depends on determining whether Marques Brownlee is a creator or an influencer. As such—as a social distinction—it’s bound up in the experiences and values of each person who is trying to make that distinction. So as the article notes, influencers almost always refer to themselves as creators, while their commercial representation invariably refers to them as influencers. The language you use is in part determined by where you stand and what you want.