Ai influencing

How easy is it to falsify your life online? And how ethical is it to begin with? 

The second question, in my opinion, is a simple “not really ethical at all”. However, it is more common than not to find a plethora of influencers or online personalities doing just that. This topic first sparked my interest when traveling abroad for the first time. I had never been outside the US on vacation, ever, and when I found myself in total awe while exploring the streets of Portugal last October, I wondered how quickly these kinds of experiences are used online as a ploy towards holding interest. 

This photo is an AI generated photo of a marina of sail boats off the coast of Cascais, Portugal. 

Next is a photo of the Marina de Cascais, taken by Portuguese Eyes on Flickr. 

(“Marina de Cascais (Portugal)” by Portuguese_eyes is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.)

Last is my own photo, taken on vacation last October, visiting Cascais and posted onto my Instagram. 

There are few differences between these images, such as the lighting from the direction of the sun or the angle in which the photo captures the sail boats or ocean backdrop. Altogether, it displays the very point that anyone can post any three of these images as their own onto social media with a caption detailing their own experience of this coastal Portuguese city. 

As stated in Benji Edwards’ article detailing the experience of posting “deep-fakes” on social media, “The ease of creating fakes, coupled with the viral nature of a platform like Twitter, means that false information can spread faster than it can be fact-checked”. Again, this sentiment sparked wonder on the vast amount of influencers who share their lavish lifestyles of consistent trips abroad, coupled with images of blue water and tanned skin. A New York Post article highlights this phenomenon on their own deep dive of a Nebraska-based photo editing service titled “Fake A Vacation”, founded in 2017. The article highlights a few instances of influencers with thousands of followers falsifying their lifestyles or vacations in order to play into a status-quo that they themselves perpetuate, untouchable and worldly, all for their followers. While the sheer availability of this act is incredibly easy to commit, the ethics of the act plays into a larger problem of being online. The ease, as Edwards stated, will spread quicker than the ability to question it. So, where do we draw the line? What becomes of our relationship with the content we consume online? Should we question everything we see? 

For me I say, Enjoy with caution, and stay informed. Also, if you ever feel jealous of someone else’s pretty life, yours might just be prettier because it’s actually happening.

-gabrielle