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In the words of Alex Russo, “Everything is not what it seems”.

On January 19th 2025, TikTok went dark for its American users, following the Supreme Court’s ruling… for 12 hours.

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The TikTok ban caused a humdrum of drama and emotion in the first two weeks of the new year. In the week leading up to the app’s (supposed) demise, American content creators gave their heartfelt goodbyes to their loyal fanbases, promoted their other social media platforms, and exposed themselves publicly for lying to their hundreds and millions of viewers?

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As the app came to its “final week”, influencers hopped on the trend of confessing their deepest, darkest secrets, using a soundbite from the TV Show Family Guy: “Since we’re all gonna die, there’s one more secret I have to share with you. I did not care for The Godfather.”

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“Well, if the app is going down, what do I have to lose?”, seemed to be the prevailing mindset amongst these influencers.

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Beauty influencer, Meredith Duxbury, skyrocketed to internet stardom through her “Get Ready With Me” videos where she would smother 10 pumps of foundation, directly on her face, which she always claimed “is what works best for [her]”. But, on 9th January, she hopped on the bandwagon and admitted to her 18 million TikTok followers: “I did wipe some of those 10 pumps off…”, adding, “or did I?” in her caption.

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Another TikToker, Kaeli Mae, admitted that she “never actually used any of those special ice cubes” when her whole platform was built on her unique ice restocking videos.

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Sure, some who participated did it in good fun and were relatively harmless. Even Duolingo came on and did a “mascot reveal”. But what about those, like Meredith, who built their audience and living off of, essentially, lies and false realities? What does that say about the social media landscape we live in?

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The Implications

Is it wrong to lie about your life online?

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Technically, it’s not. Almost everyone does it. That is until you make it a living where you influence people to buy things through an affiliate code or link by constructing a reality that people perceive is real, admire and want to emulate, without ever realising that it has never been attainable in the first place (all the while rarely disclosing paid partnerships or sponsorships, but that’s a separate conversation).

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That’s when it becomes harmful.

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Influencer marketing has never been about promoting a product solely. It promotes a certain lifestyle. A lifestyle of luxury, of excess, of overconsumption. A lifestyle that, frankly speaking, can never be a reality for the majority, most of whom are in a cost of living crisis right now.

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The Internet isn’t real!

It was all so surreal. One minute, everyone was shedding tears, expressing heartfelt farewells, the next, promoting their alternative social media platforms, the next, everyone was back to posting as normal.

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When TikTok magically resurrected half a day after its untimely death, we saw all these influencers desperately backtracking, explaining themselves away.

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If it wasn’t clear enough, don’t believe everything you see online, especially from an Influencer. Everything online is curated to sell us something. They’ve gotta get their bag some way, somehow.

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Social media has allowed us to connect with people all over the world and that is a good thing, to a certain extent.

However, as much as we would like to believe, we don’t actually know those people behind the screen, no matter how much of their lives they share online. And most of the time, it’s not true. Unlike our relationships with people in our actual lives. Our experiences in the real world. 

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Honesty Really is the Best Policy.

Perhaps, this was all a blessing in disguise.

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After the grand expose, Meredith’s Get Ready With Me videos are largely the same, save for a little twist. She’s switched out her “10 Pumps of Foundation” method at the beginning of her videos to a more modest application of concealer and foundation.

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Kaeli Mae, similarly, no longer posts any “ice cube restock” videos, opting for more realistic, albeit still extravagant, lifestyle vlogs. 

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In 2025, fraudulent, money-grabbing, rage-baiting shticks are out. Now, hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy a better, more authentic version of TikTok, and social media this year.