I used to respect people with hundreds of followers on social media blindly, not until I started seeing how some use bots to make things look far more popular than they are.
Once I see their huge following, I will conclude that yes, these people are influential; they have knowledge and have a strong community. The respect is not here at all, but sadly, some people now go extra lengths buying these followers, like with bots, and on the other hand, they deceive investors who do business with them due to their supposed real large community.
But then, no one needs to tell me anymore that not everything I see online is genuine, but you see, people often value appearance more than how authentic things are, that's humans for you .
Sometimes in February, I stumbled upon an account with almost 200,000 followers, and while I expected hundreds of comments on the recent posts, it was just like two or three, and I suspected the account to be one of those grown by bots. As curious as I am, I went to read reviews from a few people who did business with them in the past. Lo and behold, there were several sad complaints from the reviewers. They were disappointed and misled by the page's popularity. This page must have bought followers and likes but didn't consider the clear damage it may cause to those who will blindly trust them.
Obviously, people tend to trust accounts with large audiences, and some businesses may choose those kinds of influencers. Imagine doing business with such a fake page; that means losing millions, and it's terrible to behold in our society today where people chase money without conscience. This also can affect genuine creators somehow.
Genuine creators spend years to build their page consistently with valuable content, while others simply use bots to appear like a real account and may end up being more successful even. Some real creators can even be tempted to follow suit if care is not taken, and before you know it, we keep losing values gradually.
These are challenges we see today in our society, but the question is, should it be criminalized?
Well, I don't think everything should be handled as a criminal offense; however, this attitude is deceitful and should attract consequences. You can't be creating fake accounts to lure investors, take away their money, and still go unpunished; it's fraud, but done on a smart way.
On the other hand, social media devs should grow to the point of detecting fake accounts and banish them immediately.
Overall, real creators and influencers are not even about the followers of their followers for me, anyway. I know I have been inspired by some people not with big accounts; these people simply remain consistent with their valuable content, and that wins my heart.
Being real is rare nowadays but is one of the most valuable attributes we should embrace.
*This is my response to the #hive learners prompt on the topic titled , IT’S ALL FAKE.
image was created using chatgpt
