The Pressure of Living Up to an Online Persona

We all judge people online based on their looks and aesthetics but when it dosent match the reality thats where downfall starts.

Celebrities often build a carefully curated personality or an aesthetic online even when in reality they are different people entirely but can we blame them? I dont think so. We standing in an era where people like to follow trends, make new exciting posts and just be wild. celebrities do this so they dont loose fame. These people have to maintain a certain image, have to realize that even a simplest task as liking another content creators picture or making a statement can effect their careers if they dont align with their public aesthetic or image. They have to keep trying new trends while maintaining their image so they wont feel left out or because their so called fan following dont loose interest. Im not targeting anyone but some people like these get so obsessed over temporarily fame that they loose themselves in the process to maintain an image of a person that in reality they are not. This can be forced on a celebrity by the company to create profit or by ones self under pressure and in the long run its stressful, tiring and bad for mental health.

For example: Consider a person who focus on body positivity and health suddenly a video goes viral of him eating unhealthy food on a Sunday morning. People will start to criticize him/her. Even thoughthere is no context and there can be multiple reasons or simply a personal choice. but when u create a very hard defined image its very hard shifting that image without getting hate.

Real Life Examples:

Lana Rhoades a famous influencer whose content relvolved around body positivity and self acceptance. she created such image that people thought she likes being more natural. Then she later got a breast augmentation surgery which was a contrast to image she portrayed. fans started to call her fake even though in reality its her making different choices overtime.

Corpse Husband an faceless youtuber who got famous for his alarmingly deep voice. He built his identity over dark aesthetics, anonymity, horror vibes and goth. Fans started to romanticize him even when there was no face reveal. This hype raised the expectation so high it was impossible to reach so when a picture of him got leaked ,he faced an enormous backlash by the same fans who romanticized him saying he was fake. Even though in reality he didnt lie about anything and realistically he cant lie how he looks in real life. Bullying over his face caused him to take long break from his career.

Dream a Minecraft faceless youtuber who faced something similar. Fans used to make edits and fanarts of him based on how they thin he will look like. The fanarts got famous and people started to demand for a face reveal eventually dream did do a face reveal but he got hate for how he looked like so he deleted the face reveal video.

Bellie Ellish a singer famous for great vocals and very distinct fashion sense. She always used to wear baggy clothes to her concerts, interviews, performances and even met galas. she only changed her style of fashion to a more feminine look but followers hated her for that choice saying that she changed for cloud and male validation.

These kind of incidents tell us more about negative side of such fame.

Rather than these cases some influencers also portray themselves as rich and wealthy people for validation and likes. Some people pretend to be skinny by extensive photoshopping and then spreading words about health. People do believe them without knowing its all fake. Sadly, people who do follow them try to get the same results, go on extreme diets, buy things out of budget and loose or get scammed for money. This all creates a toxic cycle spreading from the famous personality to its devoted followers.

Reasons:

Pressure of being perfect: One of the main reasons people make fake personas on internet is because they want to be a role model for others . They hide their insecurities and their real selves for showing a perfect image

Chasing cloud: Another reason for this is that they need more views. they want more people to watch their videos so they get money. They like the attention and number of likes on their. so making an image is beneficial for them because they cant show everything unfiltered.

Need for validation: When people get attached to their social media and likes too much they pull out these publicity stunts to get more people to talk about them, like them and constantly praise them. Even though its for a short period of time

Then a question arises does catfishing comes into this category. faking it and making people believe it do come in this category but there is a difference between catfishing and public stunts vs simply making different decision or doing something out of the public image.

The same issues are faced in kpop culture where women have to look extremely white or feminine or even childlike, Even though they have matured. Their companies force them to wear short dresses or inappropriate clothes age wise. They have to go through extreme diets to look unrealistically skinny even to life threatening levels. This all happens to maintain the perfect image for publicity.