Life beyond likes: The truth about being a social media influencer
If you’ve ever dreamed of being a social media influencer, you should probably rethink that considering not everything is all glitter & rainbows. While it may look like everything is perfect while scrolling through your fave influencer’s Instagram posts, we can assure you their lives are actually far from perfect. If you don’t believe us though, read on to learn about these influencer horror stories.
Far from perfect
You should know by now that the life of a social media influencer is mostly fake. From using extreme photoshop & photo-editing skills all the way to pompously over-exaggerating their wealth or lifestyles, these people make money off of pretending their life is all glitter & gold, so of course that’s how they’ll portray themselves in front of the camera & on social media.
However, Buzzfeed recently gathered some stories by friends & loved ones of social media influencers about just what it was like in real life to be an influencer. So, if you’re dreaming of making a living off of building your own social media following, maybe read through these stories first, and then make sure this is the lifestyle you really want for yourself.
Obsessed with how they’re seen
Social media has proven to be damaging to the self-esteem of many people. Whether it’s wanting to look like photoshopped bodies or wishing to be as rich as the millionaire you follow on Instagram, it’s no doubt that scrolling through your feed can give you a totally warped sense of reality. Some people admitted their social media influencer friends were victims to this, and constantly obsessed with how they were perceived.
u/S_204 on Reddit explained that being friends with a social media influencer was annoying, admitting: “One of my buddies is constantly filming everything we do and posting it . . . It dominates everything he does and has severely impacted his personal relationships. He can’t keep a GF and it’s clearly related to this obsession of his”.
u/Cirrus-Ramparts admitted that her social media influencer friend hasn’t come to anything they invited her to “in five years because she only goes to events that ‘further her business.’ Regularly says things like, ‘We’re all using each other for something’”, and that her friend told them: “This is my life now, my business comes first and if you can’t accept that, then I guess you’re not a real friend”.
Being fake
Many posts also mentioned that their lives were incredibly fake. u/Lemonfly4012 said: “If you look at her social media, you’d think she was a supermodel millionaire who goes on tons of trips. She’s actually chronically unemployed, and has an income of less than $10K/year. Her boyfriend makes about $60K/year which is enough to afford them a very nice three-and-a-half bedroom apartment”.
“She has tons of props she uses to make each room look different from day to day so it seems like she’s always in a new, exotic place. They take two trips a year to fun, tropical places — in which she takes many photos, and posts them as different places throughout the year”.
Another comment by u/Used-Parsley-8754 admitted their neighbor exploited their children for social media and that “behind the scenes she’s nothing like the happy pictures! She screams at [her kids] to smile, and on one occasion said, ‘I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like the fucking juice! Just pretend and smile!’”
To sum it all up, u/SagiattariusA_Star explained that living the life of a social media influencer was “Exactly as fake and staged as you imagine it to be, the on-camera moments are completely non-genuine. It is, in the end, just an acting/modeling job and not their real personality”.
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Do you believe these stories? Would you be an influencer if you could? How do you feel about social media influencers now that you’ve read these personal accounts? Let us know in the comments.
