As social media has lately shifted from serving a platform for sharing knowledge and connecting with loved ones to become a navigating world of fame and viral content, it would not be sinful to say that it is not a sweet journey for all dreamers.

The latest victim of this is 11-year-old boy who died after he tied a noose around his neck while shooting a prank reel for social media was reported in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district on Sunday.

Karan Parmar, a Class 7 student, was playing with other children on the vacant plot near his house at the time. In the purported video shot by a boy at the scene, Karan has a noose tied from a tree around his neck, and he acts like he is in pain while others around him continue to play.  According to the police, the other children thought the boy was acting, but he soon lost consciousness.

Social media from being a platform that was meant to be a rainbow and bring in all the constructive changes has today turned out to be a nightmare for many. After the ban of TikTok, Instagram reels in 2020 (short video format), made their grand entry into the world of social media, and by no means did anybody know that they would break the records of users and dreamers in the aspiration to stand out and be recognised.

Social media has become oversocial through the years and has aided many users in attaining the title of "social media influencers". The changing algorithms of the social media platforms majorly Instagram, YouTube and Facebook have changed the landscape of fame, forcing such influencers to make content out of the way, even to the extent of risking lives to shine in the masses at a place where everyone wants to shine.

Expecting a glittering journey, many influencers face criticism and failure, while some go to extreme lengths, even risking their lives, to create distinctive content. These crossing of boundaries to get fame has led to an increase in mishaps with the influencers while filming content. The social media platforms have promised likes, views, and shares at the expense of safety. Recent cases like the case of Aanvi Kamdar, a travel influencer, 26 years old with over 2, 80,000 followers on Instagram and 833 subscribers on Youtube, fell from 300 feet at the Kumbhe waterfall in Maharashtra while filming an Instagram reel.

Another influencer Agastya Chauhan, YouTube fame, went by Pro Rider 1000 with over 2 million subscribers. He died in a road accident on May 3, 2023, on the Yamuna Expressway in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. He was a motorcycle enthusiast and made videos on the same. He was riding a Kawasaki Ninja ZX 10R bike while attempting to exceed 300 km/h speed.  These are just a few of the many incidents where influencers have met with fatal outcomes while chasing digital fame. Countless micro-influencers face similar dangers, often without making the headlines.

This hallucination of turning famous overnight pushes users to create increasingly hazardous content, ignoring the risks to their safety and well-being. Making videos on the untouched parts of the world by putting their own lives in danger, trying to give unheard and false information to grow followers has become a different ball game altogether.

It is sad for me to know that none of this is going to stop because the reel life looks like a life of ease and rising fanbase, hiding the cons a bidding influencer has to face in real life. The rise of social media has undoubtedly brought many positive changes such as democratizing content creation and providing new opportunities for connection and self-expression but it has also introduced new risks which are bigger and more dangerous than the opportunities.

The users should understand that this pursuit of viral fame has been driven by the intoxicating allure of online validation and is not real life. The ability to differentiate between the reel and real life should be the key to navigating social media safely and responsibly. Social media companies should also bear a responsibility to ensure their algorithms do not promote dangerous behavior and should implement more robust safety measures to protect users.