The ugly truth of being a social media influencer

It is well known by many that social media can have a negative impact on your mental health, but what about the content creators themselves?

 “It absolutely killed me inside.

 “I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, I could not function at all” Charlotte revealed. While searching for the words to say about her experience with trolling online, the same phrase kept appearing. “It was just mental, it was mental”. In 2018, content creator Charlotte Valentine came under scrutiny for the content she was posting. She was at the hands of an absurd amount of online abuse and harassment, with no idea of what to do. “Every single aspect of my life was absolutely torn apart”. With her social media brand, The Home That Made Me, Charlotte posts DIY based content, focusing on home renovations and fixups.

It never even entered her head that her posts would be seen by the masses and would eventually lead her down a path of hurt and torment.

 There is a heavy stigma attached to content creators with the topic of mental health. Due to the correlation between social media and depression being so high, all fingers seem to point towards the creators themselves.

In a 2023 study it was found that over 70% of influencers had received online harassment and trolling messages due to their content. Reports say that this trolling can lead to sleeping problems and even suicidal thoughts.

Even though this feature dives into the dark truth of having a platform on social media, there are still many positive experiences that content creators have. For local business owner Katherine Verity, founder of Meraki Beach, her platform on Instagram aids her sustainable clothing business. In a fight against climate change, Katherine pledges to “grow our following through our crusade for a greener and more sustainable fashion future”. Having a substantial following on a platform such as Instagram can enable such a wider reach to others, evidenced by Katherine’s reflections that she’s able to create a community of whom all share the same values. With Charlotte, having a following of around 124,000 people enables her to provide for her family and offers so many other positive experiences. She’s offered opportunities to collaborate with well-known brands and has the ability to be as create as she desires due to her large following. “I am so grateful for everything that has happened, the good and the bad, because it’s where I am now”.

For a year, Charlotte was completely and utterly consumed by these comments. “I would check it constantly, and I mean constantly.

 “It was so consuming”.

 However, no comment about her looks or her appearance would ever hurt her like the comments about her children. With a specific thread on Tattle titled “Save Poor Rory”, the forum writers believe that Charlotte favours her daughter Elsa, and despises her son Rory. In the year that she was subjected to this hate, she turned to anti-anxiety medication and depression medication to assist her.

 In a specific turn of events an individual started to comment on the platform about Charlotte and her partner Joe. The lady was claiming to know Joe from work, making defamatory comments about him and the company. As the company name was appearing more consistently over the website, Charlotte and Joe took it into their own hands and contacted the HR department. After back-and-forth communication the lady was interviewed, found guilty and ultimately let go. Charlotte felt deep guilt for the firing of this individual, and stated how if it was up to her, she wouldn’t have agreed to this. Charlotte wrote a letter to the woman, exposing all her emotion at the time of the event.  Here is a snippet from the letter: “Over the past seven months, this website has destroyed me more than I can ever tell. I cannot even begin to explain how it feels to be publicly attacked, belittled and bullied”. All this woman wanted was to bring misery to the Valentine family, and she may have for a short while- but Charlotte got back up on her feet and is better than ever.

 Katherine has also fallen victim to online trolling in the past. However, instead of leaving comments on another platform, an individual resulted to leaving comments on Katherine’s account. Bashing her lack of “inclusivity” this individual continued on to say how that this outrage was “f*cking disgusting and whatever weirdos started Meraki Beach need to rot”. This comment filled with anger and hatred stemmed from nowhere, and according to Katherine was fuelled by a lack of researching on the website.

 In a bid to decrease the influx of trolling activities, Charlotte supports the idea that members of the public should provide ID to create accounts on social media platforms. This is also supported by former model Katie Price, who in 2021, was calling for it to be made a legal requirement.

 When asked their responses to people who troll online, both women reflected how they feel sorry for people who are nasty to others. They both encourage people to think about the individual they are targeting, that everyone has feelings and emotions.