Social media platforms allow for the display of false realities of how great individuals’ lives might be. 

Instagram may be the worst. Perfectly curated photos of life-changing trips, expensive styles and fake smiles. Only a select few accounts accurately portray real lives through photos. 

No one posts a picture in class with a caption explaining their daily life as a student. No one makes a post about the bad things that happen in their lives. 

Instagram profiles are not the only lie. Have you ever seen social media brand influencers? 

Brand influencers pollute your Instagram feed with content detailing how great the products they sponsor are. They say that they live by these products. 

Influencers representing these companies do not always stand by their products — it’s about the money. 

This does seem fair, however. Why would they push a product from which they do not gain? Why would they risk ruining the social media page many care so much about and losing the followers? 

These influencers give their followers a generous discount codes for 20 percent to 50  percent off their overpriced products. On the surface, this seems like a lot of savings. After further investigation, you discover this bikini is $60. With the 30 percent off code, it is still $42. 

That is still overpriced because an additional 10 percent goes to the person pushing the product. After it all, it is still a $36 overpriced bikini.

There is more than just pressure to purchase the products. There are ads to persuade you to join the influencers. 

You, too, can get paid to compete against them, and in return, you get one free item worth $40 (shipping not included) and 50 percent off all future items. For just one post a month with comments about how great the product is and with a minimum of 500 followers, anyone can do it. 

Some companies say that 20 percent of their profits go to saving sea turtles or finding homes for puppies. This is a good marketing strategy but could also be an impetus to raise the prices even higher. 

We cannot be certain that the product is everything the company or infuencer says it is. We cannot be certain that the bikini is $60 or even $36 quality. We cannot be certain that the supplements they sell are going to help you lose weight, get more energy and clear your skin. 

We cannot be certain that 10 percent goes to saving marine life as claimed, and we cannot be certain that the influencers actually use and care about the brands they are representing. 

At the end of the day, who really wants to see more lies on social media? Who really wants to see people you do not care about post another beach picture, no matter how nice that bikini is?

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