Punk’d: Social Media Edition
When you saw this picture, what did you think? Some of my Instagram followers thought, “YOU LOOK GORGEOUS” with many emojis to follow. Others were like “Ohhh it’s blue.” And some people noticed my love for Star Wars by saying, “Is your hair blue like your lightsaber?” But did the thought occurred to you, “Hey is this fake? Is this photoshopped?” If you’re anything like the majority of my followers, chances are no. And after telling everyone it was fake the next day, people were UPSET.
This is what I actually looked like during my little photoshoot I forced my brother to photograph for me outside my house. I actually ran out of the cheap hair dye spray, causing me to barely dye half of my hair. Luckily, I have a lot of experience in Photoshop to make my hair actually look fully blue. Of course, I filtered the picture to make the blue pop even more to grab attention from all of my followers, and people were believing it. I posted my “new hair” on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat to reach as many people as possible. I even kept the dye in for my Zoom classes later that day just to trick more people.
The activity and response I got from this “new hair-do” was a lot more than I expected. My post on Instagram got nearly 300 likes and 31 comments reacting positively to my blue hair, which is more than an average picture on my account. On Facebook, I got 60 likes and 25 comments all from family members and my parents’ friends who were convinced this was real. On Snapchat, my story got the most views it’s ever gotten (311 views last time I checked) and so many people who I never talk to were complimenting me on my new look.
However, not everyone was fooled. My 6 closest friends were skeptical this was real because:
- I have never dyed my hair in my entire life, so why now and why blue?
- I would of told them if I was thinking/about to dye my hair because I have never done it before.
As the day went on and the dye began to fade, it became harder and harder for me to hide my secret. So the following morning I created this apology post and shared it on all of the accounts I used to trick my followers on.
And like I mentioned before, people were UPSET. I got so many people in my DM’s complaining how they fell for it. On Snapchat, people were mad at themselves for actually believing it and realizing they didn’t know me as well as they did. And many of my friends were making fun of my feed and asking “oh is this fake too?” But after calming them down, all of them ended the conversation with saying how I should actually dye my hair blue! (But I won’t because my parents would ban me from my house and maybe disown me)
However, my favorite response had to be a girl that goes to my college who told me I inspired her to actually dye her hair blue to make her happy during our current state of quarantine. I had no idea I had this much influence on social media because I like to think I have a kinda small following. But knowing I gave someone the confidence to take a little risk like this made me feel great.
All in all, I learned how easy it is for people to fall for fake things on social media. And I too probably fall for fake posts way more than I expect. When I got the idea to “dye my hair blue” for this assignment, I thought I was going to be called out right away for photoshopping my hair a different color. But people actually bought it, and surprisingly really liked me with blue hair. Maybe during my next mental breakdown or break up, I’ll dye my hair for real. But as long as I don’t pull a 2007 Britney Spears and shave all my hair off, I’m going to love my hair no matter what color it is.
