Social Media could have been another medium to communicate, network, reconnect and make new friends. But instead, it has turned into a monkey that forces us to express emotions that are unnecessary, and live in a world where we don’t even know if we are following a real or fake people.
Quite recently, the news about celebrities having more than half their following as fake profiles, was exposed. Simply use the IGAudit by Authentique, and see for yourself, the celebrities, Instagram Influencers and micro-bloggers that you follow, could be having beefed up numbers.
The Bad
For example, Kim Kardashian has once again broken the internet with being the foremost in this list. It comes as no surprise, and although one can argue that fake followers doesn’t imply that her team bought followers, but from my point of view it only means that all that you see, may not be authentic. It could be a marketing gimmick.
The social media world is a make believe world. Many studies have been conducted, where user behaviors have been examined, and we come to the same conclusion that, all that we see, may not be the truth.
Today, mid-life crisis is not about getting a makeover, buying a sports car in your forties and dressing up crass. It’s as hard-hitting as starting emotional relationships over an instant messenger chatting app, and compensating for what’s missing in your current relationship with your actual partner.
I have seen this from close quarters, where a friend of mine got into an emotional relationship with someone from a different country (and who they had never met before), over Facebook Messenger and left their girlfriend of four years, high and dry when she found out.
What’s more, the girlfriend and the new girl didn’t even realize that of the 18-months of the new ‘cyber relationship’, 14 of them were overlapping! So easy to cheat these days!
Easy access to people over the social media platforms, is one of the reasons why emotional relationships with friends who you lost touch with, is on the rise. And as we all know, emotional relationships eventually lead to a physical and then fake ones.
The Good
All is not sour on Instagram, and like all coins, social media has its – flip side – good aspects too. I recently came across the handle called renderweekly and was happy to see how it is using Instagram to promote a rendering challenge each week, which designers from across the globe could participate and in exchange they got recognition and more followers to their Instagram account.
Instagram was primarily a photography app, that allowed you to be the best photographer, thanks to the filters and frames that you could use. Somewhere this base has got diluted, but what’s remained is the inspiration and enthusiasm that two industries bring out for us: food and travel.
Pictures of food, good looking food, #InstaWorthy #FoodPorn – food has its own tale to tell. I’d much rather search and discover good food in my city, that has been recommended by an influencer, on Instagram. For example, there was a local restaurant in my city, willing to give out free meals, for those who could guess the ingredients of a new dessert that they had created.
The dessert looked very tempting and it was hard to decipher the exact ingredient, but the whole activity created such intrigue that it received many entries, and it inspired some of us to actually recreate the dessert at home, once the restaurant shared its recipe.
My friends and I always check out the hotels and locations on Instagram, when we have to plan our next vacation. Try searching #bali and you will get to know so much more about this place, than any travel guide. More often than not, the pictures and experiences captured are authentic.
The onus lies on us, it’s very easy to blame social media for all the perils that come with it. But it’s all on us – we need to know when to draw the line. Maybe un-follow a few shallow celebrities who endorse unnecessary products.
