Misha Agrawal, a popular Instagram influencer, died by suicide after struggling emotionally due to a drop in her follower count.
Why Social Media Influencers Suffer from Mental Health Issues?
- Huge Gulf Between the Real and Virtual Worlds: Being an influencer seems glamorous, filled with gifts, sponsored trips, and fame.
- However, for influencers, being online is a full-time job. The pressure to constantly post, engage, and perform leads to privacy loss, burnout and anxiety.
- Validation and Online Scrutiny: Influencers face intense pressure to gain likes, comments, and followers and tie their self-worth to social media popularity.
- However, negative feedback, through trolling, abuse, or criticism, can cause serious emotional harm.
- Toxic Comparisons: Being surrounded by carefully edited and curated content can lead to harmful social comparisons with respect to lifestyle, fulfilling relationships, etc.
- Studies link this with higher levels of depression and anxiety among influencers and their audiences.
- Stigma Around Their Career: Many influencers report feeling dismissed or judged because their profession is not always taken seriously.
As more lives move online, understanding and supporting influencer mental health and well-being becomes increasingly essential.