“I hacked my own Instagram account.”
With those six words, travel blogger and photographer Carolyn Stritch revealed she had successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of her 191,000 followers.
Just days before, Carolyn had shared an image of herself in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland in California, a trip she had taken alone to “treat herself” for her 22nd birthday.
“I’ve taken myself off to California. There I am in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle – my crazy, self-indulgent 22nd birthday present to myself,” she wrote.
“Tomorrow I’ll be back home and it’ll be like it never even happened! I keep saying to myself: it’s kind of fun to do the impossible. Life is what you make it!”
“Like it never happened” is exactly right. Because it never did. Carolyn had never gone to Disneyland or posed in front of the castle.
It was all part of an ‘experiment’ Carolyn – who is actually 32 – had undertaken to prove to her followers they couldn’t always believe what they saw on social media.
On a post shared to her blog, The Slow Traveler, Carolyn said she was inspired to try the experiment after reading a book by Will Storr called Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing To Us.
Top Comments
Wow. Who knew people could lie on the internet?!
Someone had basically this exact idea a few years ago - she edited herself into pictures of Thailand or somewhere, while she was curled up in bed at home. It wasn't revolutionary then either.
Editing a photo then lying about it isn't an 'experiment' hey.
And if her hypothesis is "people lie on the internet" then she's a bit late to the game.