“The World you’re looking at only exists from the outside. The only reason I survive in it, is that I always knew it was empty.” – Chuck Bass

 More often, than not, one opens their insta feed and there it is: jets, cars, hotels, labels, clothes, bags and watches… A total number of items on just one photo, one occasion which could easily amount to… umm… I don’t know let’s say A FEW MILLION LOL. Of course, it is nothing new that there are uber rich peeps in the World, who have either amassed ridiculous at first sound fortunes or have won (and here I’ll say it) the genetic lottery of being lucky enough to be born into the families of these geniuses who have made enough dough to last many generations. And here’s a “but coming…” BUT, we live in the social media age and if before these high spending, big balling perves were living their dirty little lives in privacy, the masses were quite clueless as to what that lifestyle actually looked like. Well…now the cat is out of the bag! The truly rich normally are not exactly flaunters in fact most of the time they prefer the exact opposite, why give the IRS’ and the HMRC’s or whatever equivalent a second look at what they might have missed out on, not to mention Country customs if you’re famous. Most of the time the shameless advertising of one’s lavish lifestyle is reserved for the Jay Z’s and Kim K’s of the World in other words celebrities whose whole point is to be unattainable whether it’s their incredible talents, beauty or wealth… that has always been deemed appropriate and an exception to the rules of etiquette. UMM, what etiquette? We are passed that now LOL!! Now, don’t get me wrong here, we are not talking about the new kind of “celebs” we now have – the influencers. I’m not even talking about the bored wives, daughters, sons and husbands of the Billionaires and multi-Millionaires, which is common but more often than not it’s an effortless accident and mainly includes daily lifestyle routines… They don’t mean to flaunt, that is just their life they have all the freedoms of speech and press anyone else does. The next thing I am going to write does not mean I’m under illusions that we never had phonies and frauds in our midst before the social media age, although it was mainly in order to infiltrate a certain society in order to move up the social ladder or expand their network which would obviously for the intelligent ones could assist in making money which is a perfectly normal exercise. What is an acceptable explanation behind the FAUX rich kids of Instagram?! Yes, excuse the term… I used it! And not exactly kids either… LOL!  You look at an account you see cars… not one, not even two… each worth around 250-400 thousand if not more, you see watches with similar price tags, bags – all in exotic skins, and clothes from the latest collections of the biggest fashion houses. On the most elaborate accounts that isn’t enough, there will be the obligatory post in a private jet most of the time looking polished with a laptop and some ridiculous quote caption. And of course, let’s not forget the houses and hotel rooms… in all honesty the list goes on. At which point and yes, I am guilty as charged, I would naturally think… hmm I wonder who this girl/guy is… because, obviously with this much money to comfortably be jet setting and spending in the 5 figures there must be something on them, clearly, I (like many of you would), google that sh*t… nope nothing on there. In most cases whoever is mesmerised by and a little envious of this unspeakably opulent Instagram account is in other words a fool. Say a perfectly successful young man, who has a good job and carried his weight in life is made to feel inadequate by a page, which obviously is a problem of its own but that is something we will revisit in another article. My question though is: what on earth are the people running these accounts thinking? I get that we all want the lavish things in life and all the luxuries the retail, hospitality and real estate industries have to offer, but what is it all worth? What are these individuals really missing out on? Or getting from it? Does it really make one feel better to post a photo of themselves in a Rolls Royce, or in the Presidential Suite of Hotel des Paris in Monaco or even worse on a mega yacht in Mykonos?? It is a fact that the come down will be worse than the high in this case just like with all the other drugs… and unfortunately, it is. To break it down and put it into perspective, someone fronting must obviously be really wanting what they are selling, and even after acquiring thousands of likes and comments, a photo is just a photo. Let’s imagine he gets into his friend’s Lambo takes a few snaps, catches a flight on another friend’s jet or charter takes a few snaps, manages to buy a few designer clothes from the cheapest collections at a discount. But what happens after, is far worse than all the smiles the social media reaction brings him, it’s the realisation that this is not him, the pretence that comes with it once he meets new people who know him by his insta page, the girls who are attracted to the toys he’s advertising and jump on hooking up with someone who can fly them to hotspots and buy the latest trends. This is where reality kicks in: so how exactly do these virtual characters come to life?  

  Sometimes they are hustlers. Ever heard the term “fake it till you make it”? That can even be an explicable strategy in order to reach new heights, unfortunately though, most of the time it is NOT the case. It sounds like I am ranting about things we all know and perhaps, it isn’t exactly reinventing the bicycle. I am genuinely curious. How is it done??? At this point we have all watched the recent documentaries, such as ‘The Tinder Swindler’ or ‘Inventing Anna’ and as we learned there are multiple ways to live a lifestyle that does not belong to you. It may sound surprising but the likes of the events in the mentioned documentaries happen much more often than one would expect, unfortunately most of the time other members of the social circle just separate themselves from the “faker” as opposed to engage in a full blown battle of “exposing” the reality, as it is simply not in anyone’s interest most of the time and the people who have been scammed or used prefer for the story to quietly go away rather than be involved in a scandal, regardless big or small. I have observed many “tinder swindlers” over the years, in different parts of the World, whether big time crooks or young and green “table whores” (as we used to call them back in the day). The pretence seems to be quite exhausting. Besides all the laughs, I find it fascinatingly interesting how morally damaging it must be, playing this lame role, I almost feel sorry to the point that I could cry actual tears, as I would for somebody hooked on heroin had he/she been doing it publicly. One could argue that this is part of the hustle, which is true if it is within the law. Or compare it to drastically faking ones looks, whether on photo or with the help of modern aesthetic practices, which have their own detrimental consequences, but this is literally living a whole different life, while wasting your own, for things that don’t matter beyond your interpretation of what they really mean.