Asif M Basit, UK
As more and more youth head out to seek help with personal problems on social media, there are many pitfalls that must be identified. How safe is it to open up to social media influencers? And how dangerous is it to do so with pseudo-influencers who are there to prey on the vulnerability of those who reach out?
With social media becoming the number one source of entertainment, news, propaganda, consumerism and lifestyle, the human race seems to be facing an unprecedented change in so many ways.
The purpose of this article is not to explain what social media is all about, as younger generations (alpha, Z or any new ones that might have emerged) know it all too well. But what is intended to be addressed here is a concept that has become very common with the rise of social media – the “influencer” phenomenon. (The Influencer Industry: The quest for authenticity on social media, Emily Hund, 2023)
What is not intended is to address every aspect of its rise and fall, where fall means new technologies taking over in the form of AI influencers or the general public becoming more aware of the staged “unboxing” and “food review” culture and sponsorship-fuelled lifestyles of these so-called influencers.
We only intend to address a very dark side of this influencer culture that is still sharp enough to cut through innocent minds, especially those of our youth.
Those labelled as influencers are either called so for the influence they have had on public thought, or they are the self-styled ones who want to be classed as such – “Psuedo-influencers” being a better description.
From homemaking women to bodybuilding youth; from students to those who teach them; and from TV hosts to those they interview, everyone seems to be influenced by one influencer or the other.
Those who are genuinely influential personalities working towards making the world a better place, there is, of course, no harm in being influenced by their ideas. The danger lies with the pseudo–influencers who not only lack substance in their content but can push their audience towards aspiring to a lifestyle that exists only in the imagination of that pseudo–influencer and is far from attainable for their innocent followers. (“The Dark Side of Social Media Influencers”, Yuksul Ekinci, 17 January 2025)
Before moving on, we must emphasise the fact that accepting someone as an influencer automatically means you accept yourself as the influenced. How much we like to see ourselves in such a position is the question we always need to ask before becoming so impressed as to be seen as the “influenced”.
You watch these pseudo-influencers eat out at expensive restaurants almost every other day, wear luxury watches and high-end branded clothes, show off their expensive gifts, buy the latest models of any gadget that comes on the market, and, above all, do nothing all day but create and post social media content showcasing their lavish lifestyle. You watch such content, ruminating that the proverbial Jack might not always be a dull boy with all play and no work at all, quite vibrant on the contrary.
Not everyone can afford such a lifestyle, but some vulnerable viewers might aspire to it, ending up in nothing but despair and frustration.
But then how can these pseudo-influencers afford to do all this? Well, either by monetised social media accounts that thrive on followers, or by faking a lifestyle that isn’t even their own. How hard is it to borrow a friend’s car, or a luxury watch, or grab a friend’s branded clothes, or tag along with affluent friends to Michelin Star restaurants and just post whatever is served to them by these courteous friends (who don’t stay friends for long as they soon start to see through the pseudo-influencer’s self-obsessed motives)? (“The Psychological Strategies of Influencers”, Manfred FR Kets de Vries, knowledge.insead.edu, 28 June 2023)
This situation gets even worse when such pseudo-influencers have tried every avenue, and their social media accounts seem to get stuck in reverse gear – little to no new followers; not much appreciation for posts that once brought back likes and comments; followers becoming bored and even expressing their boredom.
Then comes the stage we all need to be aware of. The pseudo-influencer now wants to try new avenues. They might start offering advice on relationships, life-struggles, faith, and, most sensitive of all, mental health issues – areas that comprise almost every modern man’s problems.
They are usually by no standard capable of giving advice in these areas, but then, after all, they are desperate for more followers, whatever means it may take. Accounts like these can seem to take on a religious tone, says Leigh Stein in her analysis “The Empty Religions of Instagram”. She observes that the comment sections on these accounts can become confessionals, and posts become sermons on how to deal with emotional pain. (“The Empty Religions of Instagram”, nytimes.com, 5 March 2021)
In a world full of stressful situations, some vulnerable followers are prone to fall prey to the advice offered by such pseudo–influencers. They open up to them about their problems in the hope that this “influencer”, who seems to be the happiest and most content person on earth, will be able to resolve all issues that have crippled their lives. Little do these vulnerable followers know that the pseudo–influencer is only after more followers and is least interested in alleviating other people’s misery and pain. (Although based on consumer marketing techniques, this article gives a better understanding of unethical practices of social media influencers: “Going Viral: Sharing of Misinformation by Social Media Influencers” by Rory Mulcahy et al in Australasian Marketing Journal, August 2024)
A follower might send the pseudo–influencer a DM and later find it posted on their story, decorated with all kinds of emojis to make it look like a trophy. Even if the sender’s name is hidden, the one who had opened up still feels upset about their sensitive feelings being posted online. But then the pseudo-influencer is there only to use everything that comes their way as their marketing tool. They want other followers to know that people are reaching out to them, hence making them consider opening up to this pseudo–influencer.
The one who had their DM posted on the story stops reaching out. What comes to them as an even bigger shock is that the pseudo–influencer, too, doesn’t feel the need to get back. Well, the pseudo–influencer got what they wanted from this poor follower, posted it as part of their malicious marketing technique, and simply moved on. For someone already troubled with personal problems, the feeling of being used only makes things worse, adding to the pain and agony of their already pestering real-life issues.
To understand why someone would show such malicious behaviour, we need to understand what goes on at the back of the mind of such pseudo-influencers.
Real influencers did not head to social media to become influencers. Their genuine and original work influenced people, and, as the term suggests, that is what made them influencers.
On the other hand, pseudo–influencers set out specifically to be influencers, but without the right type of ingredients – no substance, no thought process, no originality, no authenticity, no values.
Since such pseudo–influencers are only out to gain cheap popularity and fame, their aspiration of becoming an influencer too is a means to their end and not their actual goal.
They invest so much time and effort in fashioning themselves in various capacities that they end up being too self-possessed and self-obsessed. Knowing that they are not actually the same as their self-styled image, or their online persona that they present to the world, they develop a false image of themselves and begin to believe it to be true.
Narcissism, paranoia and imposter syndrome
The self-obsession and the self-carved false ego are the two significant factors that allow narcissistic tendencies to start creeping into their personalities, the first one usually being a lack or complete loss of empathy. Human beings do not remain human beings to them, but merely numbers – clicks, likes, comments, and followers – tools that can potentially enable more followers.
As they devote more and more effort and time to their ill-defined end-goal, without the desired outcome, the element of being burnt out or frustrated kicks in. This is quite natural, because where a genuine influencer relies on intrinsic motivation – where they love their art or craft or whatever they are known for – our pseudo–influencer relies on external motivation through clicks, likes, followers and comments. Once caught in this pursuit of external validation, they further lose a stable sense of identity, resulting in identity diffusion, in which they constantly copy others to reinvent themselves. (“How our online identities change our true personality”, Psychology Times, February 2025)
When their self-worth becomes heavily dependent on numbers, they become hypersensitive to criticism and even fall into the dark ditch of a paranoia-like feeling, or insecurity, where they constantly live under the fear of people judging them, talking about them, being jealous of them, and wanting them to fail.
This is a natural consequence of relying on a false online persona that they have created. Some traits noticeable here are those of impostor syndrome – the fear that one day, the mask might slip and people see their actual worthless self.
Audience ambiguity further fuels this insecurity. Since social media audiences are invisible (in the virtual sense of the term), our pseudo–influencer can start imagining hidden critics, jealous peers and silent observers waiting for them to slip.
They become so insecure that even good advice or positive criticism can fuel the insecurity, making them turn against even those who mean well for them. This is their insecurity filling informational gaps with fear-based assumptions.
By constantly posting pieces of their lives on social media, and that too without the emotional and intellectual resilience of established influencers, the pseudo-influencer develops an even graver insecurity about having their life out there and being discussed. This exposure with no control – and no desired results – leads to paranoid thoughts that people “must be” talking behind their back, or even that everyone must be seeing that they are trying too hard.
This can eventually lead to cognitive distortion, where the pseudo-influencer starts to believe they can read other people’s minds, to the extent that they start to believe they know what others say to them is not what they actually think about them.
Now this is a vicious circle: anxiety leads such pseudo-influencers to try areas that are not their domains, but they believe these domains can earn them respect and, subsequently, more meaningful followers.
They have, by now, tried every fun-and-games way and have hit a dead end. Now, in their mind, is the time to rise above and gain followers through respectable means, and it is at this point that they start to present themselves as faith-gurus, life-coaches, or mental health experts who, as they present themselves, are a Godsend messiah for their followers.
With all that going on in their mind, as described above, one must not forget that they are so full of themselves that the only beneficiary of their new identity is their own false self and no one else.
Should you reach out, they will indulge in long-winded interactions, appearing to be good listeners and full of good advice. They will even mention a careful selection of their own anxieties and life issues to create a comfort zone for you where you continue to open up and spill more tea.
What one does not realise is that they take you to a point where they have collected enough data from your personal life that they can put it out to lure more people in. They might not name you, but lay out your problems to convince others that they can be trusted with anything, no matter how private it may be.
Schadenfreude: The psychological phenomenon
However, this is not the only motive behind their sinister agenda. The monster behind this behaviour is a psychological phenomenon called schadenfreude, where one person experiences joy, pleasure and satisfaction through other people’s troubles, pains, failures and sufferings.
Schadenfreude is experienced by people with low self-esteem to protect their self-conception and, hence, the vulnerable people in their company (online company in this particular case) are their favourite prey. If they somehow become aware of your vulnerability, which they naturally develop a very keen eye for, you are exactly who they were looking to prey on. (For various models of schadenfreude, “Schandenfreude deconstructed and reconstructed: A tripartite motivational model”, by Shensheng Wong, S Lilienfeld and Philippe Rochat, in New Ideas in Psychology, January 2019)
They listen to you not out of sympathy, or even empathy, but for the satisfaction of their false ego that they have built and are hypersensitive about. They know that they have failed in their goals and derive satisfaction out of your vulnerability and slips that you might have experienced in raw and tender moments of your life.
One common sign that you have fallen prey to such a pseudo–influencer is that once you have opened up to them, they will suddenly lose interest in you and your problems. However, they will continue to mention you as a “someone” who reached out to them about such and such life issues and how they have “helped” them, when in fact, they have only helped themselves.
Such pseudo–influencers are not only restricted to social media. They could be around you in your friends’ circles, cajoling you to tell your stories; spending a great deal of time with you; listening with great keenness; but then, narrating them to other people in your circle, albeit anonymously, but giving away enough hints so the audience can almost guess who they are talking about.
You might soon start to get people around you alluding to the weakness you mentioned only to this self-styled influencer and feel deeply hurt – more hurt to know how your simple story has been embellished and exaggerated by the pseudo–influencer to attract attention.
So, whether it is under the guise of a friend or a social media influencer, the advice here is to never open up about your vulnerabilities to anyone you do not know well enough. Such pseudo–influencers, on social media or in real life, will pop out of the blue and suddenly pretend to be your close friend.
Any friendship or acquaintanceship that is not organic in its genesis and growth isn’t the place for one to open up.
Thus, while trust is the basis when it comes to opening up about our problems to someone, even more important is to know where to place this trust. If one feels, in an overwhelming moment, the need to open up to a friend, then there has to be a history of trust and not just a mushroomed acquaintanceship.
Other than seeking help through personal faith, or opening up to reliable and trusted friends, the only other people to trust with our vulnerable side are professionally trained personnel who are there to give genuine advice and not to prey on our sensitive information.