As Instagram becomes more and more reflective of everyone’s ‘highlight reel,’ the line between fake and real becomes more and more blurred – and this influencer’s fake Bali holiday is proof.
American influencer and YouTuber Natalia Taylor recently revealed she had completely fabricated a recent trip to Bali. Taylor tricked her Instagram followers into thinking she was on holiday in Indonesia, but had merely posted a series of glamorous, yet strategic, photos taken inside an IKEA store.
In a YouTube video, Taylor said she conducted the fake Bali holiday experiment “to see if they’ll believe I’m actually on this influencer vacation.”
“It’s been said life on the Internet isn’t always what it seems, especially in today’s day and age when it’s so easy to pretend to be anyone you want to be,” she said. “So many influencers nowadays have actually been caught in the act of pretending to be at a particular destination when they really weren’t and it’s either Photoshop or it’s not even them.”
Speaking of controversial influencers, listen to the GOAT team breakdown Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goopy behaviour on It’s Been A Big Day For…below:
To achieve that ‘fake Bali holiday glow,’ Taylor said “I got dressed up [with] hair, makeup, wardrobe, everything, and called over my trusted photographer.”
“We’re going to go to IKEA together and see how many pictures we can take in the little furniture displays either before we get kicked out or before things get a little too awkward for our own good.”
If you look closely at fake Bali holiday pics, you can even see the white IKEA tags in the background.
To be fair, Taylor tagged her location as “Bali Indonesia” on all the photos and according to News.com.au, she even included “photos of her “getting ready” for the flight, looking out the window of the plane and arriving at Bali’s Denpasar airport – using fake footage from the Internet.”
Later in her revealing YouTube video, Taylor said, “Don’t trust everything you see on the Internet. Sometimes people want to lie about who they are as a person. And it’s not hard to do, apparently.”
This expert dupe is proof that Instagram users can be gullible, but it also shines a rather frightening light on just how easy it is for people to fabricate elements their lives for likes. If anything, it’s a healthy reminder to always keep it real online.
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