The Guide to the Perfect Fake-ation

On July 3^rd, 2019, I was at my summer internship, I was ready to post a photo of the salad I had just ordered for lunch. Dried fig, purple cabbage and lemon dressing, it was perfect for my Instagram story. But if you’re part of the #InstaFam, you know that Instagram was down that day. The whole platform was glitching in more ways than one. This is embarrassing, but my first instinct was to rant about Instagram being down, on Instagram, and I couldn’t (so frustrating!) 

So, let’s get on a topic that has been popular among youtubers, the infamous trend, to trick their subscribers into believing that they took a vacation. While IRL (in real life), they were really in their hometown staging this charade. A lot of the youtubers explained how they started this trend to show the world how easy it is to lie on social media. Whether it’s a picture of a photoshopped boarding pass or the quintessential mirror selfie of their airport outfit, this stuff is believable. They’re in front of the Arc de Triomphe or La Concha Beach when they’re actually in their bedroom or neighborhood coffeeshop and just really skilled with Photoshop. 

As/Is is a popular style brand from Buzzfeed. In March of this year, Jazzmyne Jay and Lindsay Webster posted a video about faking a vacation to London. They engaged in a plethora of tips and tricks to trick their followers into believing that they had actually made this trip. It takes effort to make a point! But yes, this further accentuates that it takes effort, but you can really manipulate people (if you want to) 

Mostly, what we see on social media is hardly a reflection of reality. We only ever see the good parts of people’s lives. No one is going to post something like “Lost my baggage in transit #TravelDiaries” or “My fiancé overslept and missed all our walking tours #CoupleGoals” 

We probably see a selfie with a pina colada on the beach. These deceptive things lead us to assume that these people live such glamorous lives. Without a doubt, social media is such a great resource we have at our fingertips. The key here being, if we know how to use it. 

Social Media can be an amazing platform (legit!), to grow businesses, to connect with people, to look up educational information and to even share your talents. So, let’s make it a safe place to do so, free of fake lives and hypocrisy and worst of all, hate! Let's briefly make a reference to this article on Entrepreneur that talks about the dilemma of modern life -- performing well in life, being present and being YOURSELF.

In a nutshell, let’s commit to making social media a safe and fun place for all of us, or atleast try our best. Keep it real #InstaFam. Signing off with a quote from our book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies "As powerful as it is, it's the technology in the hands of almost-always-connected people that makes it so powerful"

Will talk to you all in the next update from Simrants (Social Media Edition) 

Hope you all are having the best day! 

Simran 

References (out of habit)

Li, C. (2010). Groundswell. Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Strategic Direction, 26(8). doi: 10.1108/sd.2010.05626hae.002As/Is. (2019, March 30). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNJdrQCxKU&t=252s

Deutsch, B. (2018, April 19). Why Everyone and Everything on Social Media Is Fake. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/311421Deutsch, B. (2018, April 19). Why Everyone and Everything on Social Media Is Fake. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/311421

As/Is. (2019, March 30). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNJdrQCxKU&t=252sLi, C. (2010). Groundswell. Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Strategic Direction, 26(8). doi: 10.1108/sd.2010.05626hae.002