30 Cringy And Embarrassing People Who Got Totally Blindsided By Their Internet 'Fame'

Although being an influencer is still a relatively new career path, it has quickly become one of the most popular dreams of many young people. If you ask a group of children what they want to be when they grow up, there’s a great chance that many of them will respond with “Youtuber!”, “TikToker!” or “Twitch streamer!” In fact, one study featuring 3,000 kids in the UK and the US found that nearly 30% of them ranked being a Youtuber as a more preferable job than being a teacher, a professional athlete, a musician or an astronaut.  

But it’s not just kids that are drawn to the glittery lifestyle of having a social media platform. According to a recent study from Morning Consult, 54% of Americans between the ages of 13 and 38 said that they would become an influencer if given the opportunity. So why is this such an enticing career? Do we assume that they don’t actually do any work, are we interested in the popularity and fame, or is it the mystery that draws us in? The lifestyle is certainly quite different from how most of us earn our money, sitting at desks all day or working in customer service, but as we all know, there are pros and cons to every career.

To gain some insight on whether or not influencers are a positive thing, we reached out to Sue Scheff, author of multiple books including Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate. "Like with social media in general, there are the pros and cons of influencers," Sue told Bored Panda. "I believe that being an influencer comes with responsibility. I feel they can be used for good, however they also have had a negative impact on people (especially young people) too. With some influencers – it can feel like an infomercial, while others are creating a false sense of reality."

"Internet fame can be rewarding – but you also need to be prepared for the dark side," Sue warns. "You are now opened up for cyber-critics, and there is no shortage of online haters. Keep in mind, you can go from fame to infamy -- very quickly online."

We also asked Sue how internet fame tends to affect people. "This really depends on the person, however realistically, it really can’t help but change most people," she says. "With some, it does go to their heads and they will get arrogant and egotistical– ego can be dangerous. It’s when they start losing sight of why they started a platform (or became an influencer) – they typically become self-righteous which can cause them to lose followers. But with others, they are grateful for their followers, engage with them and continue to appreciate the love."

We were also curious what Sue would say to anyone who has aspirations of becoming an influencer or gaining fame online. "I believe it’s something that would happen naturally. It’s not something you can force," she told Bored Panda. "There are literally millions of people (all ages) hoping to become the next big influencer, be passionate and authentic about what you love – it will come through on the screen. I would never discourage anyone, but also people need to be realistic about it – in one study, 98 percent of teens aspire to be influencers. That’s a big number – stay the course of life, if it happens, it was meant to be – otherwise, enjoy sharing your content you’re excited about! You never know when it will be discovered."

"I talk to parents on a weekly basis, many are concerned about their kids slacking in their studies with the dreams of becoming the next big influencer," Sue added. "It’s important not to discourage them (completely) as much as share with them how an education plays a role in reaching their goals. Talk about going to college for marketing, branding, and business or even graphic arts – this will only enhance their social media platform. Knowledge is power, education is key."

"In my opinion – we need to get our kids thinking about other ways they can use their energy, internet savvy and social media expertise – into future employment – outside of being an influencer," Sue told Bored Panda. "With adults -- again, continue sharing your passion, be authentic, you never know if you get discovered -- in the meantime, it's your job that will pay the rent."

"Like with the Reddit thread -- anything you do online you need to be prepared to be judged," Sue notes. "The entire world has carte blanche to a keypad with very little boundaries to say whatever they are feeling about you -- the good, bad, and ugly -- and unfortunately, the UGLY speaks the loudest - and echoes the longest. In other words, becoming an influencer is not for the faint of heart."

If you'd like to learn more about Sue and check out her books, be sure to visit her website right here.

10 years ago, it would have been a huge achievement to receive one million views on a Youtube video, but today, it’s hard to impress anyone with numbers on social media. The most followed Instagram accounts have hundreds of millions of followers, and the most followed TikTok accounts have upwards of 50 million followers. So if you have a few hundred or even a few thousand people liking your photos online, that is nothing in the eyes of most of the world. And while nobody should be allowed to let social media fame or a presence online go to their head, it is especially obnoxious when it comes from people who have a long way to go if they’re looking to reach internet fame. 

While it has become easy for anyone to go viral, at least for a short amount of time, it has become extremely difficult to hold onto a platform and stay relevant. It’s hard to be considered special for having a few minutes of fame online when millions of others have been in the exact same situation. The stories on this list feature people who are a bit delusional about their level of “fame” and who probably deserve to be called out and knocked down a peg. Nobody likes dealing with an entitled person, but if you’re going to act like you’re a celebrity, you better actually be one. Otherwise, there are plenty of other people out there who will happily mock you on Reddit.   

We also reached out to Dr. Jenna Drenten, an expert in digital consumer culture, to hear her thoughts on influencers. "Internet fame itself is not good or bad," Dr. Drenten told Bored Panda. "It can be leveraged to bring about positive social change and give a platform to educational content. Internet fame becomes problematic when it is the only goal or when a desire to be famous for the sake of being famous is all that matters. That's when we start to internet fame taking a turn for the worst. When clicks and views are all that matters, that's a recipe for spreading clickbaitable misinformation, instigating pile-on attacks, and going to extremes for the sake of becoming famous."

We also asked Dr. Drenten how internet fame tends to affect people. "For some people, internet fame can foster a sense of community and solidarity because it enables supportive connections you might not have access to in offline spaces," she noted. "For others, internet fame can create a sense of skepticism and insecurity because it's hard to untether your worth and value from the allure of virality. That one tweet that goes viral or the TikTok video that takes off is often akin to a one-hit wonder. I would argue this is an evolution of Chris Rojek's concept of 'celetoids' in celebrity studies. A celetoid is someone who is famous for a brief time, versus classic celebrities who have more lasting fame. It's often used to capture the quick rise and fall of reality stars."

"What's unique about social media is that it allows individuals to be brokers of attention in their own right, circumventing traditional attention brokers -- like news media, publicists, Hollywood," Dr. Drenten explained. "So everyday people can have a viral post and capitalize on their sudden celebrity status, beyond the traditional structures of fame. The modern 'celetoid' is not necessarily a person - it is content. The person (the creator or influencer) may not become famous, but their posted content does. The content is the celebrity, and now creators are able to monetize that celebrity very quickly - outside of traditional brokers of attention in celebrity culture."

We were also curious what Dr. Drenten would say to anyone who is aspiring to become internet famous. "Becoming internet famous is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It can often be a lot of work for very little pay-out, and the job of being an influencer is precarious for most," she explained. "Plus, the excitement of going viral will always come with a downside of potential trolling, doxxing, and personal attacks. People seeking the spotlight need to understand that constant online attention is not always a positive experience."

Many of the people in these stories seem excited about having an online presence and are eager to keep growing their followers (possibly just so they can “act” more famous but that’s another conversation), but being famous online is not all it’s cracked up to be. Emma Bostian wrote a piece for Medium titled ‘The Dark Side of Internet Fame’, and she broke down some of the reasons why you just might want to avoid going viral. Emma, who has over 200k followers on Twitter, first notes that gaining popularity online quickly led her to become obsessed with her phone. “I went from spending about an hour each day on my phone, to upwards of five hours. It became a full-time job. I ended up disabling all notifications because I couldn’t focus,” Emma writes. “I was addicted.” Many of us already spend more hours than we would like to online, but with more followers comes more attention. And it can be very hard to tune those followers out.

Emma went on to note that gaining a bit of fame online also led to much more negativity being introduced to her life. Along with the followers come haters, and especially when someone has a large platform, people feel much more free to leave negative comments or call out an influencer. Emma gives the example of how she was mocked and not taken seriously as a Software Developer simply because she’s a woman. “All I wanted to do was defend myself, but it just made it worse,” she explained. “I wish I had better advice for dealing with these situations, but the truth is that they destroy your sense of self-worth and often lead to emotional breakdowns.” Most of us know what it feels like to have dealt with a bully in school or an older sibling who picks on us, but it can be much harder to ignore hundreds or thousands of people online who are constantly inserting their opinions on your life. Personally, I would much rather have nobody watching me than have people watching me and hoping I fail.

Having an audience can also add a lot of pressure to our lives. Emma mentions that she has “productivity FOMO”, meaning that she always feels like she must be creating something or she’s falling behind. When someone gains a following and has many people watching, they can feel like they have to deliver or live up to their followers’ expectations or they don’t deserve to have their support. Because of this, Emma also writes that she has often felt imposter syndrome and wondered if she is actually competent. It’s never healthy to put too much pressure on ourselves, but it can be very easy to slip into a pattern of doing that when there are thousands or millions of eyes on you. 

In theory, influencers are beloved by their followers and have a massive audience that will purchase whatever they promote and support their life choices. In reality, however, not everybody is a fan of these social media stars. One survey of over 4,000 consumers in the UK, France and Germany found that 62% of respondents believe influencer marketing takes advantage of impressionable audiences, more than half think influencers are too materialistic, and over half also believe that influencers misrepresent real life. Those don’t really sound like traits that most people would want to be associated with…