It has happened to everyone, at least once, at least for a little while, to spy on the life of an ex: social media for watching without being seen is absolutely perfect. The feminine is desired, to tell what it is and how it works #influcirco is also necessary: the spies, the influencers and the disappointed followers. All women. Since the post-pandemic on They don’t use their real names, but anagrams. There is the Cynical Beautician, the beauty entrepreneur Cristina Fogazzi, who becomes #civicbeauticianla digital media strategist Veronica Beninithe Spora, which becomes #sp0ra and then #viuliagalentina for Giulia Valentina#bimanenati for the photographer Nima BenatiCotton with bow emoticon for Rockandfiocc, at the registry office Giulia Torelli and so on. Paola Turani, 2 million followers, a boyfriend, two dogs and a child, model and influencer profession is #taolapurani. In the last few days they have been angry with her because her son gave a chocolate to the dogs – “you disgust the disgusting”, among the comments – and recently there has been a certain animosity over her opinion on the advisability of highlights on hair during pregnancy.
At first glance, the hashtag #influcirco seems to gather an avalanche of more or less gratuitous malice directed by a group of very active female accounts – at least judging by the nicknames and images – creating an incomprehensible spectacle for those who do not know these influencers and leaving the observer with only one question: but if you hate them, if they are scammers, why do you continue to follow them? Simply put, but what comes from this disguised and silent hatred?
That it is not a gut criticism and a passing outburst, but something more serious, can be understood first of all from the invented hashtags: they don’t use the real name of the influencers they hate but they watch every day, like their exes, so as not to contribute to set the exact name trending, in short not to fuel the fame of those who don’t deserve this fame. But then, who am I? What do they want, the entertainers of the circus who spy on the famous to rejoice in contradictions and errors, in naivety as well as haircuts? In the online magazine Links, ideas for TVthe digital communication expert for national and international brands Laura Fontana renamed it “the community of de-influenced people”. «Undoubtedly there are users who were already very skeptical towards the world of influencers, but the conspicuous majority are made up of followers disappointed at having invested so much time on people who then turned out not to be who they said they were – writes Fontana -. Disappointment arises because a pact of belief is broken within a parasocial relationship: the influencer who invites everyone to put “kindness” into practice but then responds rudely to a private message, an unfortunate exit from the ‘influencer on a sensitive topic for which perhaps she had also been a testimonial, having recommended something which then turns out to be a poor product, having completely invented facts just to get more attention”.
It happened in a small way Julia Elle, the Desperately Mom who invented a happy and glamorous extended family only to be proven wrong by her ex, in a big way Chiara Ferragni with charity: I’ll tell you a story, mine. I’m on your smartphone and I’ll show you my house, my dog – there is no influencer without a dog – and my children too. I convince you that I’m on your side, then it happens that a little piece of reality breaks into the perfect virtual life and poof, the spell vanishes. «Many ex-followers say that they bonded with this or that influencer at particular moments in their lives. their lives, in which they were more “fragile” (they were dealing with bereavement or a divorce, they had just lost their job), and they were looking for something to distract themselves. The fact is that we become attached to the lives of these characters who talk about themselves on social media and give everything about themselves (…) – continues Fontana on Link -. This is how an empathetic and emotional bond is established.” Post pandemic, post courses purchased with the pious illusion that they could change our lives, post disappointments due to more or less major slip-ups, what remains of falling in love with influencers is online stalking and hatred, which is not solitary but collective because it has a hashtag. Once again, to feel less alone, we go online. And we remain alone.