A man with his back turned is standing on a wet rock. In the background, a waterfall in a forest in India. The person filming, a few meters behind, pans the camera so that viewers can enjoy the impressive surroundings. Suddenly, the man slips and disappears into the white foam of the waterfall. The body of Sharath Kumar, 23, was found a week later 200 meters from the crash site.
According to local media, the deceased and a friend of his embarked on a five-kilometer walk to reach the waterfall despite the prohibition of the authorities due to the high rainy season. His family thought he was going to work when he walked out the door. "Now he will never come back," laments his father.
Sharat Kumar is one of the three deaths of influencers that have been known so far in the month of August. The Indian adventurer took too many risks. Just like Remi Ludici, who fell from a Hong Kong skyscraper while he was climbing it. Zhanna D'Art died of causes that have not yet been clarified after years of following a strict fruit-eating diet -she did not even drink water- and losing many kilos of weight until she was emaciated.
Asked what they want to be when they grow up, one in three Spanish minors answers: 'influencer'. There are them for everything: fashion, cooking, travel, video games, etc. But what leads some people to exceed the limits of security set by common sense? One of the most visible phenomena is that of urban climbers, urban climbers. His goal is to reach the highest areas of human constructions, places that at first glance seem inaccessible. Irungrid (Pylon Scheme Pyrate), specialized in climbing electrical towers.
“I have never climbed to impress anyone or get attention. I just like climbing and the feeling of accomplishment afterward. I see it as an extreme sport, not as a search for influence, ”he explains to La Vanguardia. He ensures that all those who practice extreme sports, including Remi Ludici, are aware of the risks and consequences involved. “We do it anyway to have amazing experiences that make our lives more meaningful,” says Irungrid.
The loss of Remi Ludici did not leave the digital community indifferent. One of her close friends, the urban climber Dakamaru, criticized that there were people who posted the phrase "don't be like Remi" (do not be like Remi). There are those who see these practices as a feat and others who directly do not understand it. “I think that the risk is highly socially reinforced by some network consumers,” explains Luis Antón, a psychologist at the IPSIA Psychology Institute. He adds that it's not just a question of getting 'likes', but that high content viewing can also influence more areas of their lives: money, status, improves their chances of finding partners, etc.
On the contrary, the urban climbers that La Vanguardia has interviewed speak of a feeling of freedom, of a feeling of achievement, of reaching places that ordinary people are not called upon to go, even of being somewhat anti-system and break established rules. “My friend and I wander the suburban part of the city in the quieter hours of the night, enjoying the heat and carelessness of summer. It was peaceful, not a sound to be heard and nothing moving except the occasional branches in the wind. It was like someone put this part of town on hiatus." This is the beginning of urban climber Aughostkos' latest Instagram post. In the image, two feet look out over the streets of a city from the top of a skyscraper.
Aughostkos says he finds the physical and mental challenge "quite relaxing in a way." "It's a kind of freedom against always being told what to do and following a redundant cycle of life," he stresses. In addition to climbing skyscrapers, he also rides freight trains. For them it is not a question of 'likes' and that they train to climb, they insist. Irungrid assures that he does not upload his feats to social networks for the likes, but to document the sport, share the experience with the community and with people who are interested. Even so, he believes that it will be increasingly difficult to practice it "because of video surveillance and censorship."
Share the experience. Therein lies the key, as explained by Víctor Renobell Santaren, PhD in Sociology and coordinator of the Degree in Political Science at the International University of La Rioja. He points out that there have always been people who have lived on the edge, but now we live in a "very visual" world where an experience doesn't exist if it's not shared. "It is no longer just about living it, but also about telling it to others," he points out. If it happens that the person who puts his life at risk is going through adolescence, knowing where the limits of society are enters the age. Crossing these limits can be throwing a piece of paper to the ground or climbing a skyscraper.
To this is added the benefits that some young people get by sharing their videos. This creates a stressful situation because the platforms require content to be continuously generated. As Renobell points out, performing certain extreme practices under a stressful situation increases the danger. "Having to be doing it continuously increases risk situations," she points out, since before there was more preparation time and equipment behind. Now it seems as simple as having a camera in hand.
In the age of social media, social success is measured in views and likes, stresses sociologist Renobell. That is why many boys and girls in Spain want 'influencers', 'streamers' or 'youtubers' when they are older. He believes that for many young people, making a living from social networks has become an accessible option given the difficulty of finding a job. Since success on platforms is measured by views and virality, this leads some people to be reckless.
Renobell believes that social language is wrong when assessing the importance of someone based on the followers they have: the more followers, the more social relevance you have. "That has led to a situation of cheating younger people, who will do anything to have that impact," she stresses. To this we must add the ephemeral nature of virality, which leads to having to continually feed the networks with content that keeps the audience connected. The sociologist gives an example that it is no longer worth just being good at a sport to look for sponsors, but that figure must be accompanied by a significant number of followers on social networks.
Perhaps it was this pressure to share and the search for social notoriety that, in just a month, led two Chinese influencers to die after ingesting several liters of alcohol in just a few seconds as part of a viral challenge. Or that the influencer Sophia Cheung lost her life after standing on the edge of a waterfall to look for that spectacular photo. Or that the British model Madalyn Davis fell off a cliff while she was taking a selfie. And what about the climber in a bikini? She died of hypothermia after an accident on one of her hikes. They do not have to be influencers or celebrities, they are also anonymous people looking for their seconds of glory. In 2021, a 26-year-old girl fell 20 meters from the Mediterranean balcony of the Castell de Benidorm, where she climbed to take a selfie. According to data collected by the iO Foundation, nearly 400 people have lost their lives while taking a selfie since 2008. One of the most dramatic cases is that of an Indian family in which six members died. Two of them fell for a married woman while taking a photo and the rest jumped in to rescue them.
The algorithm is the mark of the times in social networks. What is known about its operation is not because the big technology companies have told it. It is because it has been learned based on experience. Now, the attention span lasts so short, that the three-second rule is followed: this is the time there is to engage the audience. As the psychologist Luis Antón points out, "algorithms study how to get people to spend more time looking at networks." Hence the competition for the audience, demanding and distracted. “To make this content more and more special, there are some influencers who take more risks, because they believe that their followers will increase that way,” Antón points out.
Elena Daprá is a health psychologist, expert in Psychological Well-being and member of the Section of the Official College of Psychology of Madrid. In her consultation, she has attended 'influencers' who come due to lack of self-esteem, anxiety, depression, etc. “There you always have to review the limits that are establishing work vs. personal life, ”she points out. She questions the idea that taking risks implies feelings such as freedom or breaking rules against what is established. She believes that the simple fact of putting a camera "enslaves" in a certain way. If it really were a matter of freedom, she points out that there would be no need to record it.
Daprá also speaks of a “false authenticity”. “If it is fashionable to be authentic, what I seek is to be authentic - rather, to appear authentic - and that is the difference. It is one thing to appear authentic and another is to have worked, know yourself and know yourself authentic”. He explains that authenticity consists of personal work carried out from the inside out and that it is usually accompanied by consistency and awareness. That is why he does believe that there is a search for the 'like' and everything that this entails at the level of status and economy. “Deep down they get into a positive reinforcement loop because of what it means on an economic, brand, and ego level,” he says.
To this we must add that it is not easy to maintain hearings. The psychologist Luis Antón points out that "it is difficult to find ways to satisfy the public better than others, which leads to anxiety about exposure to the public, the visibility of possible errors and the possibility that others will release content that is more accepted by the public than Own". And it is that as simple as it may seem to upload a publication to Tik Tok or Instagram, the world of social networks and the people who are dedicated to it is more professionalized than users may notice at first glance.
Lydia Alberti is co-founder of Growtag, a company specialized in Influencer Marketing (the marketing that serves as a link between influencers and brands). Regarding the motivations that can lead a person to risk their life, she quickly discards the economic aspect because she argues that not everyone has the perseverance and ability to make their social networks profitable. There are very few platforms that pay for views, such as YouTube, and that is why the great bulk of the economic benefits in the influencer world come from brands. They avoid all content that could be a problem and "it is not economically intelligent" to generate controversial content, Alberti points out.
The Influencer Marketing expert thinks that it is rather a personal decision to go to certain extremes. She points out that in Spain this is not a phenomenon that has become a trend and that the impact can be obtained without the risk of having an accident. Thus, if the economic reward is ruled out, the gratification that remains may be to have an effect in the digital community. “The search for virality is a problem that we have as a society and more so with the arrival of Tik Tok”, Alberti emphasizes. It is in the search for this virality or impact that has led numerous people to commit imprudence that has cost them their lives. But as Alberti points out, it is a moment that just as it goes up, it goes down and that is not going to translate into more followers or economic profitability. "At the marketing level, there is no logical explanation for looking for this virality because, either you are constant with those numbers, or it does not translate into anything."
For Marketing Marta, an expert in digital strategy for brands in social networks, she believes that it is the people themselves who have to "control a lot and know where the limits are so as not to take risks in the end." She also agrees that it is a personal decision to reach certain limits and not so much of the platform that is used. “The algorithm is the audience. The tricky thing is really not that your content is pushed by the algorithm, but in the end that you are able to capture the attention of an audience, ”she says.
The two marketing experts say that behind what we see in influencer profiles there is enormous work that requires constant dedication. To do this, you have to know how to gain a foothold at a time when there is a lot of competition and it is easy for the public to stop paying attention to a profile when it is not published.
