The beginning of 2025 has bought us many things, including the January
19 th TikTok ban in the United States. Although unaffected in the UK, this
long-awaited ban bought about a stream of goodbye videos, influencers
crying and montages of the viral videos of the past years. There’s no doubt
about it, people were mourning. In the days leading up to the ban, one
trend stood out among the hundreds of others, one in which influencers
admitted what they had been lying about to their audiences. Many seemed
light-hearted and largely harmless, however some confessions had more
sinister undertones demonstrating that the TikTok ban should be a wake-up
call to reevaluate society’s idolisation with content creators.
These confessions included influencers admitting they did not do the
workout routines they posted under the impression that they did, and others
admitted to taking weight loss drug such as Monjaouro (similar to
Ozempic), despite previously denying it and instead coining themselves the
‘queen of confidence’. At surface level, this may seem to be an innocent
misunderstanding, but they hide a much a darker truth, that some
influencers don’t care about their audiences and never have.
The rise and impact of TikTok as a social media platform has defined the
realm of social media in recent years. It became the most downloaded app
in 2020, at a time where people were looking for community amid the
uncertainty and isolation of Covid-19. But somewhere between then and
now, the lines between reality and fabrication have become blurred. The
rise of influencers and continent creators through TikTok was
unprecedented, previously ‘average’ people were able to build platforms
reaching hundreds and thousands of people. Influencers are able to make
their seemingly amazing life their entire online personality and displayed
self- a process incentivised by the mere fact they are getting paid to uphold
this image. Through this idolisation, the issue of comparison that is already
so prevalent throughout the social media sphere is only exasperated.
Parasocial relationships- one sided relationships or bonds with people you
don’t know, can have many detrimental effects. Although not a new
phenomenon, psychologists note that its now easier than ever to form
these relationships. Now that everyone has an online presence, social
media and access to news 24/7, we have all this information at our
fingertips which can lead to unhealthy relationships forming. Thousands of
users of social media apps will have formed parasocial relationships with
the influencers they follow, perhaps without even realising. Sometimes they
could be harmless, but often they can lead down a dangerous road of
constant comparison and obsession. The lifestyle of influencers is largely
unattainable to the general public. Challenges such as the 75 hard are
easy if you have don’t have a job that demands hours out of your day, but
when factoring in a 9-5, as well as other responsibilities such as family,
hobbies and many more, it’s suddenly impossible. Yet, seeing your
favourite influencer do this with apparent ease, only leads to feeling of
dissatisfaction and failure. To further this, it has become clear that many
influencers don’t even do half the workouts themselves, they’re clearly
happy to deceive their audiences as long as it keeps their paycheck
coming.
As the popularity of social media rises, the mental health of adolescences
has been declining. According the the World Health Organisation, 11% of
adolescents show signs of problematic social media behaviour, struggling
to control their use and experiencing negative consequences. Girls
reported higher levels of problematic social media use than boys (13% vs
9%). Many influencers speak frequently on the topic of mental health,
stressing the importance of getting help when necessary. However, some
of these very influencers also partook in the recent harmful trend of
admitting their lies to their audiences. Unfortunately, this exposes the fact
that often these issues are spoken about merely in an attempt to uphold
social image, rather than actually in an attempt to maintain the wellbeing of
their audience. It’s important to remember that influencers are synonymous
with marketing, they are their own brand. If capitalism has taught us
anything its that brands lie in order to sell their product.
As we enter the new year, and TikTok is back and running for everyone, it’s
important to reevaluate how we look at influencers. Yes, everyone loves a
doom scroll now and then, and TikTok offers an escape from real life for a
bit, but we shouldn’t uphold parasocial relationships at the expense of our
relationships in real life. At the end of the day, this has highlighted that
social media, and its beloved influencers could be gone with the click of a
button, but when effort is put into maintaining relationships with those
around you, they are here to stay.