Susie O’Brien: Social posts show a lack of selfie respect
While some Instagrammers like Celeste Barber, who raised $50 million for bushfire relief, are brilliant, there are others who will stop at nothing to maximise their brand, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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Not all heroes wear capes — or even clothes. Take LA Instagram influencer Kaylen Ward, who said she’d send her fans a naked photo in exchange for proof they had donated at least $10 to an Australian bushfire aid charity.
Within days, she’d sent out 10,000 photos and her followers had given more than $1 million.
Welcome to the rise of viral charity porn, where the way you look while you’re trying to get other people to donate money is more important than the cause you’re supporting. Well, every little bit helps, I suppose. The only way I’d raise that kind of money would be to take my clothes off and then hope people would donate funds to make me put them on again.
Recent world events, including the coronavirus and the bushfires in this country, have highlighted the good, the bad and the downright awful of social media influencers.
The good include Instagrammer Celeste Barber, whose followers donated an astonishing $50 million to bushfire relief. Unlike many other social media celebs, Barber’s calls for donations didn’t include any of the following: photos of herself looking hot, product placements, fashion shoots or nudity.
The bad include style icon Gwyneth Paltrow, who’s website Goop is selling T-shirts with “It’s only a vulva” written on it. The T-shirts should read: “It’s only a cheap publicity stunt.” There is also Sydney-based “holistic health princess” Sarah Day who’s been slammed for urging her fans to buy her skincare products and then donating a paltry $1 an item to bushfire charities.
Social media influencers are even using the coronavirus as a theme for self-promoting fashion shoots.
One designer-clad videographer posted a photo of himself wearing a black face mask and magenta bum bag with the caption “Vibe check”.
Face masks, even ones that match your outfit, are a lifesaving product, not a fashion accessory. But in the eyes of deluded influencers, a global viral outbreak has been repurposed as a chic Instagram theme.
These posts pretend to promote health tips and compare mask brands, but all they’re promoting is the people in them.
Such people, who clearly peaked well before high school, are travelling to other places of historical significance as well. From Instagrammers swimming in toxic waste pools in Spain to one lass who was criticised for comparing herself (looking picture-perfect in a G-string) with a rice paddy worker, it seems there’s no end to such stupidity.
And that brings us to the downright awful. Can you imagine trying to maximise a “personal brand” under the guise of paying tribute to the deaths of six million Jews? One deluded Instagrammer decided the answer was to pop on some Lycra and strike up yoga poses on the Berlin Holocaust memorial stones. The 2711 concrete slabs stretching over more than four acres look like raised grave stones and make a sombre statement about the extent of the deaths under the Nazi regime. But apparently, they’re also great for yoga! Or dancing on!
Other social media desperados have been posting cutesy photos of themselves walking along the abandoned tracks of the trains taking Jews to the death camps. Fun times! Good work, wannabe gymnasts! Maximise the clicks, people!
The same thing is going on at the site of the Russian nuclear catastrophe at Chernobyl. People have been flocking there after watching the recent TV miniseries about the devastating accident that killed more than 4000 people.
Think about it: you could use a visit to Chernobyl as an opportunity to learn about a tragic event in history, or you could use it to show your bum crack and thigh gap off to your social media followers.
As one critic said: “I think it’s great all of these so-called Instagram influencers are flocking to Chernobyl, we just need to convince them to stay there.”
These are the types of people who call out for products to be “gifted” to them when they have a baby and who are photographed on their wedding day holding products like spray tan bottles and soft drink cans.
Things have clearly reached a new low in Instagram land. There are lots of ways to mark tragic events: make a donation, visit the site and meet the people affected, volunteer to help or learn about the history. Putting on a bathing suit and getting photographed from behind while bending over isn’t be one of them.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist.