Wokół fenomenu wirtualnych influencerów. Zarys ogólny

Abstract Around the phenomenon of virtual influencers. Outlining the attempts to analyze a new occurrence in social media – Virtual Influencers. In the article Around the phenomenon of virtual influencers. Outlining the attempts to analyze a new occurrence in social media - Virtual Influencers, Paulina Pasławska aims to explore the possibilities of completely replacing human authority figures and of defining the phenomenon of virtual influencers. The impact of this occurrence on the perception of digital media users and attempts to embed it in the sociological and cultural context will also be analyzed in detail. Comparative studies have not yet fully sought to embed research into the field of robotics, namely in the Uncanny Valley (Mori, 1970) of the Internet era; as such, this chapter is a general outline of extensive research conducted by the author. The suggested research sample has been expanded to comprise an interdisciplinary context which also draws from such fields as psychology, communication, new media, medicine, digital marketing, and new technologies. In addition, due to the scale of the phenomenon and Internet's lack of geographical barriers, analysis on Polish and global level will authorize a series of novel studies combining new technologies with classic hypotheses. Social media have become channels shaping opinions relatively recently, and their users are a kind of authority themselves. This work will present the issue and determine the impact on the public perception of virtual influencers. As the development of digital technologies is quite fast, it should be possible to repeat this research in time, but in this article, the author wishes to map the current state and envision the future of this phenomenon. In the future, it will be possible to check the accuracy of these forecasts and to relate them to the realities of the time. The interdisciplinary nature of this phenomenon and the possibility of multidirectional confirmation of hypotheses as part of the proposed research allows us to state that the subject analysis may have a positive impact on the further development of digital media science