These days, it seems possible for pretty much anyone to have some degree of clout on social media. It doesn't matter who you are or what you do, as long as you take the right pictures and use the right hashtags, you can at least be in with a chance of going viral.
Unfortunately, once they have that level of notoriety, some people seem willing to do anything to cling onto it.
Instagram influencers Raquel and Miguel, who go by the Instagram handle @explorerssaurus_ already have more than 200,000 followers thanks to their beautiful travel photos. Recently, however, they took a daring snap that went a little more viral than normal. It showed the couple hanging out of a moving train in Sri Lanka: an unbelievably dangerous stunt.
Rather than see a wave of support from their fans on the post as they usually do, though, Raquel and Miguel found themselves being called out for putting their lives at risk, all for the sake of a pretty picture.
"It doesn’t matter how slow the train was moving!" one commenter said. "It’s stupid and dangerous and most importantly you will inspire others to take similar risky and dangerous shots."
"Two idiots risking their lives and others’ lives just to get likes."
"This is the human being who depends on Instagram. And It's the worst social phenomenon easy to understand."
"[You're] trying pretty hard to be cool," said another critic, who then asked, "if one day somebody really follows you guys and then [something] bad happens, you think you guys will take that blame?"
Despite the criticism, the influencer couple doubled down on their decision to take the snap, basically using the excuse, "Everyone else does it, so why shouldn't we?"
"This train is famous for having the most scenic views," they said. "Everyone who has been on that train knows that the locals and tourists go hanging at the doors and seated with their feet turned to the outside. Locals don't do that for likes or for Instagram, right? They do it cause there are no risk involved."
They then went on to list all the other potentially risky activities they've done for the sake of a good shot... which sort of didn't help their argument much.
"We also influence people to go out and chase waterfalls. You can slip and fall. We also influence people to rent scooters, on most of the places in Asia the accident rates are insane. We influence people to do radical activities, like parasailing, water skiing, diving, sky diving, quad biking, diving with sharks... We influence people to get out of their comfort zone and to live!"
They ended by saying that "The chances of falling from this train are definitely lower than the chances of falling from some stairs..."
And some 'Grammers did actually jump to their defence.
"I have to say, as a follower, that this photo has nothing wrong with it," wrote one person. "They are not responsible for anyone. If someone else is going to try this 'position', it is their responsibility, period. Nothing else encharged on them."
Overall, though, people are angry that pictures like this are allowed on social media, as they seem to promote doing dangerous activities for the sake of some internet fame. Raquel and Miguel may not see a problem with it, but thousands of others certainly do.
