Social media is a big part of everyone’s life, especially teenagers who tend to get a lot of inspiration from it, but not everything you see there is real and instructive. During the last decades the world of technology has changed dramatically and in the last few years more and more influencers have swarmed into the web. Indeed, a common job for young people is being an influencer and work with social media. So influencers’ lives are all focused on keeping their followers updated on what they’re doing. But watch out what you see on social media because people tend to show the greatest aspects of their lives when the reality might me very different.

Everyone is affected by what it’s shown on the web but the truth is that influencers hide their insecurities to make themselves and their lives look flawless. This way, people who watch their content and follow them, can get all hung up about their own lifestyle thinking it should be changed.

How many times have you seen a picture and wished you were that person with spotless and silky skin and a perfect body? If you’ve ever felt this way let me remind you that people spend hours taking pictures, with the perfect light, perfect make-up and so many other tricks of the trade. Not to mention filters and all the editing apps such as photoshop. That’s the reason why a picture that may seem genuine, it’s actually not. Or how many times have you wished to own expensive designer clothes and dress as a real icon? To answer this question it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t need luxurious clothes to fulfill social media’s standards. Owning those things won’t make you a better person!

Fortunately, many influencers have used their voice to expose the often fake nature of social media like Byron Denton who is a British social media personality and Natalia Taylor, an American influencer. Denton pretended to be very wealthy and posted photos of himself wearing really expensive designer clothes, going on shopping sprees and travelling to breathtaking destinations on his private jet when in reality those pictures had all been photoshopped. Meanwhile, Taylor faked an entire holiday to the island of Bali for her followers. The pictures she posted had beautiful backgrounds but those were actually taken in her local IKEA store! Byron and Natalia took things a step further and their aim was to show their followers that people should never trust what they see on social media because sometimes there is the risk to be tricked into believing things which are not true and also that if influencers want to lie and distort the truth, they easily can.

Therefore, teenagers shouldn’t be so obsessed with social media and take influencers and everything they do as role models, because you are never 100% sure what is a person behind a screen actually like or if their content is real and authentic. The greatest advice would be not wasting all of your time on the web worrying about buying the latest clothes, bags and make-up to keep up with someone you don’t even know. Social media have had the biggest impact on our lives and it’s good that it is a mean to share good photos, but it should be used more to spread useful information and content rather than trick the youngest and make them feel insecure. So, the next time you’re scrolling through Instagram or TikTok beware what’s real and what’s fake and remember that not everything is always what it seems!