I'm actually really impressed that she didn't even pitch this on her own channel. A very sweet lady and a class act.

I’m exploding with pride seeing Ruby speak!

Proud of our Ruby - Ruby Granger channel fans unite!

I am proud of Ruby, you can tell that she was nervous but the only time I had to give a speech in front of an audience in school, I nearly fainted so that's that.

I am so proud of you, Ruby. I watched you for about 6 years already on your UKposts channel. Great work!

When David Beckham had his silly haircut back in the mid 90's, half the kids at primary school insisted to their parents that they wanted the same haircut. Influential figures are emulated by their fans. That's the power of endorsement and advertising.

Crikey I’m so so proud of her - I always knew she was well spoken, but this is the definition of eloquent! Beautifully spoken, I can only dream of being this good at speaking! This topic needs so much more discussion, thank you for opening up the conversation ❤

Ruby hit the nail on the head. What an extraordinarily important point to raise!

I'm so proud of you Ruby ❤❤❤❤❤❤ There are no words to explain my joy for you.

i’ve been watching ruby since her GCSE and A-level days!! i remember clearly watching her oxford rejection video and now seeing her thriving at oxford and listening to her speak is AMAZING she’s such an inspiration

Congratulations, Ruby! You did a fantastic job!

This is brilliant, Ruby! 👏👏👏 Your confidence flourished after a few minutes, and you truly made and established your argument. Well done commenting and questioning why we are focusing on the influencing of influencers, rather than institutions etc. Bloomin awesome! Have a magical day Ruby! And FYI Oxford...you choose an incredible person to be a student, Ruby is a student who demonstrates what Oxford is made to foster!

Shocked that she mentioned Eugenia Cooney this is so true, well done Ruby ! I love the fact that you are exposing facts here 🎉

Well done Ruby. It’s very difficult to do public debating and to do this in a filmed Oxford Union, the pressure is immense! Let’s remember her age, she did great and will learn so much from this experience.

I just subscribed to OxfordUnion because of Ruby's attainment of a place in their house, proving Ruby right.

I really love and look up to this lady. I’ve been watching her for a fee years and growing alongside her. She is an inspiration and force of motion for other you g women like myself and a reminder of how necessary and precious education is.

So well done Ruby!!! Rooting for you!!

So proud of her! I've been watching Ruby's channela nd constantly being motivated by her and comforted by her through many year!

Hell yes. Very well said.

Wow I've been watching Ruby since she was in sixth form (so about 6 years!) - and this has me in absolute pieces! To see her development over the years, gosh I'm beaming with pride!

Just great!

So proud of seeing you on this Ruby! Followed you on UKposts for years (and still do)!

I am so immensely proud of you Ruby. Beaming with joy!

I’m so so proud of Ruby, I’ve grown up with her by watching her videos and she has been a huge inspiration to me! I’m so happy to see her achieving her dreams 🤎

Wonderful, Ruby! ❤

What an amazing and well spoken speech! So so amazing to discuss these points in today’s day and age

I don’t think anyone’s claimed that influencers are forcing people to buy the stuff they endorse. Ruby is trying to deflect any responsibility off herself and other influencers by trying to make it an argument about the autonomy of the audience, which it is not and never has been. It’s a question of influence. The argument she presents lacks nuance and sounds more like an attempt at defending herself, complete with whataboutism around the 7:30 mark. Oh dear.

So proud of you, Ruby! I loved learning and studying because of you.

Who the hack has to cough non stop jeeeez leave the room !! Great Job Ruby ❤

I feel so proud as well as grateful 🥺🥺

Hi ruby! I would like to say that I am so proud in saying u there! I'm overflowing with so much pride seeing u speak

so proud of you Ruby❤

Yay Ruby!!!! ❤

We love Ruby so much!❤❤❤🎉

Well done Ruby!

Really good to watch while having your say. You will make a difference ruby.

Omg Ruby! So proud!!!❤

I've been following ruby for years and It's an apotheosis to see her speaking at Oxford Union about raising awareness on influence, language and individual free will.

How i admire you Ruby!❤️

great speech!

Congratulations Ruby ❤🎉

Ruby!! So proud😊😊

Extremely well done Ruby! ❤️🥳

So, 9 and a half minutes are not enough to talk about this issue. In addition it's hard to judge this argument withou hearinh the previous one. However, I think there is one point missing here, and it is the algorithm. It's important because: 1, influencers are not as genuine as they used to be. Many of them openly talk about feeling forced to put out content they don't really like just to please an algorithm they do not fully understand. So we do have patrons today, but they're invisible and therfore impossible to negotiate with. 2, there is way too much content on social media to be managed. So people are not being influenced by a simple influence, but by one that is never ending and usually is a far more complex movement. 3, the algorithm abuses our psychological weaknesses. It manipulates us to a point we do lose our ability to even recognize influences

Excellent!!!!

I really like Ruby’s UKposts content, but it would have served her well to have more knowledge about psychology. Even since they started with commercials research has been made to see what triggers people to spend their money. Even children can be manipulated by placing colorful things at their level in the stores. These things are there due to strategy and knowledge about the human psyche. With this said! People have a responsibility on their own, so you can’t just say ” the influencers made me but it”.

Very well done!

How does she think advertising works and why would they spend millions of dollars on celebrities to hawk products if it makes no difference? A bit naive if you ask me.

Ruby !! Congratulations!

Amazing Ruby!

Great refletion about power. Congratulations, Ruby!

Influencing is the modern term for advertising. Making a product is a business. To survive as a business you need people to buy your product. You get them to do that by showing them and persuading them to buy your thing. We have many more outlets on how to reach consumers now though. We are literally bombarded with ads and sales. My Starbucks app entices me to order more by offering promotions, but do I always, no.

Go Ruby! ❤

From watching rubys vlogs to seeing her here 💕my heart melts

Great job, Ruby! Keep at it!

very proud of you, Ruby!😊

I’m so proud of you ruby ❤❤

Proud of you Ruby!!

Well said Ruby 🌺🌺🌺

This is exceptionally good! It's incredibly hard to get up in front of all those people at a prestigious debate like that and come across as well and as naturally as she is doing. Even with your notes in front of you it would be very easy to crumble under the pressure and lose confidence in what you are saying. Especially when you are going against the House! Well done to Ruby.

ruby!!! so proud of you ❤️‍🔥

so proud of her, she helped me to get back into reading books

Well done Ruby👍👍

Killed it, Ruby! So proud of you!

There „is no point in listing the ways that influencers have had a positive impact - I don’t think that would be a productive use of this time.“ is not exactly a sound working premise for the type of argument that is meant to be advanced… more so than anything this is a point against… Of course, influence can be exerted in positive or negative ways. However, to influence young people into buying things they don’t actually need and they themselves have not paid for, is hugely problematic. You cannot refer to yourself as an „influencer“ whilst arguing that the profit you are making is purely based on free will. And people such as Ruby Granger DO have a very young audience - which may lead one to question as for why she did apparently never consider the responsibility that comes with what she is doing. She advertised some dodgy snake oil in one of her recent videos… which is rather concerning.

Congratulations, Ruby! Great to see you here! I'm one of your subscribers 😊

I'm a huge fan of ruby, and although this wasn't the best performance I think she's capable of, I'm still incredibly proud of her. Delivery and coherency of the argument obviously needs practice but it's saddening to see everyone criticizing her and implying that she's just trying to cover herself from criticism solely from selfishness, or that she's just 'looking for an east payday' like someone has said. I may be biased towards her, but it is objectively of poor taste to assume things about a person and to think that you can hide behind the anonymity of social media to disrespect someone, no matter if they're Ruby Granger or a random Karen, influencer or not.

Good speech... Keep youtube channel looks better again, yours.... Be kind always...🌐🇬🇧❤

Great job Ruby!!

SO PROUD OF YOU RUBY!!!!

yay go ruby!!!!

Congrats Ruby!

Go Ruby! ♡

You are doing very well Ruby. Congratulations! This is a big step✨🙌🏻✨ 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

awww, I love Ruby so much. I am so proud of her.

Love her channel ❤

Go Ruby!!!

Go Ruby! ♥

Im so proud Rubyy

I agree that this wasn’t the best delivered speech of the evening. But the argument she presents halfway, about influencers democratising information, is BY FAR the most valuable argument of the night. It highlights the very purpose of this UKposts channel: to give freedom of speech a global outreach. This house does not regret the rise of influencers. This house OWES its success to the rise of influencers. I only regret to not have commented sooner. Thank you Ruby Granger for putting the argument forward. P.S: In the spirit of this speech, I beg you to pressure the Oxford Union to invite Robert F. Kennedy Jr to speak before November.

I sorta disagree with her statement that people do not buy things because influencers told them to and that thinking this way we assume they don't have autonomy and that it's usually kids who do that. What I can agree with is that this is cultural. In Bulgaria kids and teenagers DO follow trends because they compare with other people around them and they want to be relevant and avoid getting made fun of. Once we leave school, though this stops. We no longer care what others think and we are more capable of making wise choices and often that is led by having no money to be trendy. Considering most trendy stuff are expensive. We look for knock offs and alternatives. Whereas in the US the consumerism persists beyond High School and I have noticed that parents are the ones who teach their children to be trendy. Exhibit A) little girls (5-12) going to Sephora for make up. All of them are brought by their parents who spend their own money for things their children don't need. Exhibit B. Stanley cups. They all know they are not special and that they leak. However, they buy bulks because they are trendy and they are not hiding it. As soon as another influencer came up with another cup, most kids and adults finally admitted the Stanleys are trash and now are buying the other cup. Exhibit C. Booktok. Most books that are being thrown in our faces are low quality romance books or dark romance that make no sense. Everyone freaks over them and people buy them because everyone is reading THAT book. People lie about how many books they read and do hauls because other booktokers do it. People nowadays are simply programmed to be trendy. For me that's not a good reason to buy a product. P.S why did no one throw out this coughing guy

Being an old subscriber of her ❤its really an ecstatic moment to see her in this video

I've been following Ruby for about four years and I think she needs to improve her debate skills a little more. My comment is constructive, not destructive, and for that reason I think that she should read less and look more towards the public, have greater power of conviction. She is still a student and will improve with time.

This feels like such a full circle moment, so proud of her

Rubyyyyy ❤❤

OMG I love you Ruby, I am soooo in love with your confidence your fluency

So influencing isn't that bad because a) people should be able to deconstruct the term and see it for the cynical enterprise it is and b) there are worse things elsewhere. B) is clearly ridiculous, but a) is worse because it disproves at a stroke the entire argument.

LET'S GO RUBY ❤❤❤❤

The first part of this argument focused on the democracy of social media and how it allows people to share ideas and elicit their own influence, specifically those who formerly could not do so, is great food for thought. I think the important point here is that this democracy of social media is opening the floor for those who may have been voiceless and grants them more involvement and visibility in society. The question of the value of influence culture to autonomy is debatable because we can find some easy arguments for both sides. I do question if we lose autonomy by "following" someone and whether or not we consciously or unconsciously put influencers in a position of power. However, it can be far more difficult to question the influence of institutions, government, media, etc. because those apparatuses are not as accessible for the average person to voice their criticisms. Versus the influencer who has a comment section and multiple social media accounts directly linked to them. I don't think the influence of influencers is the most concerning kind, it is the one being debated right now because viewers have direct access to voice their opinions and criticisms on the same platforms as the people who are sharing ideas. It seems because of this proximity we do maintain some autonomy, we can directly question the ideas of influencers, but I'm not sure that we are completely free from the influence those individuals and communities have on how we communicate, think, or act.

Good to see the adoring sycophantic fan club are having such a great time.

I would developed severe social anxiety if I knew everything I did was judged to the nth degree

If the earth needed to be evacuated due to impending doom like an asteroid, influencers should be left behind.

Ruby! ❤

well done. Ruby

that's our ruby!!!

I'd like to see whether she was reading verbatim from her notes or whether she had bullet pointsfor her main ideas. Makes a lot of difference to your delivery. I used to belong to the Debating Society at school and it is not easy to stand up before a lotof people and give n eloquent argument😮

Ruby Granger You did the best.❤

Oh dear.

Of course she'd place the onus on the viewer though, she's an influencer..

wonderfully done ruby!! 🤍