It's a well-known fact that people tend to embellish their lives to varying degrees of separation on social media. We've all been guilty of showcasing a glossy, filtered version of reality to our friends and followers at one time or another, but some people's fibs are a bit more egregious than others. That's why, when someone pops up to burst the bubble of Instagrammable veneer, people tend to sit up and pay attention.
Take the example of Instagrammer Casey Sosnowski. Casey was planning a hike at Lake Okahumpka Park and Trail in Florida. Taking to Instagram, Casey posted a fetching picture of herself that had all the classic ingredients of successful Instagram post.
She was looking good, wearing some sleek gym wear, and posing on a hot summer's day with the sun shining. Green bushes and trees can be seen in the background, and she even captioned the post: "Nature is the ultimate healer to all our problems."
There was just one problem: Casey wasn't actually on a hike at all. She was actually posing in her back garden, taking the phrase: 'fake it till you make it' to new extremes.
However, not wanting her to get away with the lie, her sister Carly took to Twitter to post a screengrab of her post, along with a picture of her posing in the garden, and wrote: "My sister said she was going hiking ... this is our backyard."
The post quickly picked up a lot of attention from other Twitter-users, accruing over 300,000 likes and over 40,000 retweets in a few short hours. Casey later posted a follow-up, in which she shared the tweet and wrote: "I feel personally attacked." Busted Casey! Better luck next time!