Instagram is the world of the young, wild and free. Youngsters dominate Instagram. It’s what can be called their ‘crib’.
Instagram has helped many make entire careers for themselves. Like any other social media platform, Instagram was a good place back in the day. People shared pictures, commented on each other’s posts and genuinely appreciated each other.
The shift to deracination started when Instagram rolled out the ‘stories’ feature. Until then, the daily lives of users were not flashed on social media. But Instagram stories helped propel just that. With the ‘stories’, people publicised their daily lives. Some had ordinary ones, while others had a splash.
That’s when it all came tumbling down. Instagram has brought about psychological changes among the youth. Today, no one wants to be themselves. Everybody wants to emulate the lives of Instagram influencers.
Everyone wants to earn quick cash and everybody wants to put themselves on display for the world. With reels, the menace has only grown. Today, the lines are so blurred that a brand-new generational gap has been created by Instagram alone. Parents cannot watch their children’s activities and ‘content’ on Instagram.
If they do watch their reels, there is a real chance they would suffer a breakdown. The youth is living a lie, and an unreal life; while unabashedly displaying the same for social media validation.
The Cult of Instagram Influencers
Do you follow any Instagram influencer? Do you consider any of the mediocre people on Instagram masquerading as ‘influencers’ your icon? If not, you are living a good life. If you do, it isn’t too late still. You can get your life back on track. And with what we are about to tell you, you will probably be motivated to dump such influencers for good.
The abrasive reels; those overflowing with sex and nudity; apart from ones that tend to make audiences sheepish are not the focus of this article.
What we will focus on is the commercial scam that such influencers run without any fear, if not contempt for the law.
The World of Counterfeit Products and Duping
Instagram has led to the creation of a fake world. It almost seems like an alternate universe when one opens Instagram. The biggest worry for any sane user should be the blatant duping which goes around on the platform. This scamming is aided and promoted by no less than the very influencers which youngsters idolise.
Let’s talk about first-copy products for starters. Indian youth is at crossroads. Today, everyone wants to wear branded clothes, shoes and accessories. But there is also a dichotomy that haunts the youth. They don’t have money to buy authentic products. But there is an easy way around this problem.
The mass availability of “first copy” products of practically all well-known brands has given access to seemingly branded clothes and footwear to the youth.
But the menace has become so pervasive that now if anyone sees a young person wearing branded clothes and accessories, the first thought which strikes them is that the person does not have the original stuff, but is just parading around cheap first copies.
Read more: The dark side of the social media influencers; How they are dangerous for the Indian audience
This has led to a massive deterioration in brand names. Ultimately, big brands are suffering at the hands of China – since all the first copies come out of China. But big brands, in turn, have to shoulder some of the blame themselves. They are the ones who have made influencer marketing a sensation. Such companies are themselves seen giving out money to Instagram influencers in exchange for money. Essentially, they have been digging their graves all this while.
Instagram Influencers and Pages – the Quintessential Scamsters
Instagram influencers are not alone in scamming people. Big pages, with hundreds of thousands of followers, often end up promising no less than the latest variants of iPhones to their followers. “Giveaway offers” as they are called, continue to dupe lakhs of people every day. The system of ‘carding’ is also used to lure many youngsters into paying hefty advances for products (mostly expensive phones) that will never arrive, because those claiming to be sellers are financial criminals.
Carding refers to the process of stealing someone’s credit card details and using them for personal benefits. It’s a crime, in case the definition did not already make it clear. And Instagram is an unregulated den of criminals. So, influencers and dedicated fraud pages do not mince their words when they promise susceptible and vulnerable people with the costliest of phones at dirt cheap rates. The people get readily duped, and Instagram criminals succeed in causing mass mental agony to people.
Indian influencers, on YouTube and Instagram, are becoming cult leaders. They have a blind set of followers who obey whatever their leaders have to say. On Instagram, influencers will promote just about anything to earn quick cash. They will then flash their income before audiences, who will be motivated to become Instagram influencers out of everything else they can be in the world. Instagram is in dire need of regulation. It also requires a massive clean-up, none of which is possible until users at large grow more aware of how they are being fooled.