With social media now being the most influential force in society, it's easier than ever to go viral. As the majority of society spends pretty much every waking moment of their lives on social media, as much as one good tweet, one funny picture, or one controversial status could see you become an internet celebrity.
One person who knows all too well what it's like to enjoy 15 minutes of fame on the internet, is Anastasia: a 25-year-old who lives in Yakutsk, in the Russian district of Ust-Maysky.
Taking to her Instagram six months ago, Anastasia posted an image which revealed the impact that the -60 degrees Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures can have on someone's appearance.
In fact, she also treated her 64K followers to a video showing her walk around her town. It looks unbearable:
In the video and accompanying selfie - which has over 280,000 views on her Instagram account - Anastasia can be seen with completely frozen eyelashes. The wedding shop worker was thoroughly entertained by the ice-cold temperatures, writing:
"Everything is already in the know that we have here -50? And yes, we get out of the house (have to) and walk the streets, while staying alive even remove the vidosik and sfotkatsya."
She continued: "Two years ago, laying out a similar photo, I could not think that all these two years it will travel the Internet and visit all sorts of public posts."
In fact, Anastasia's eyelashes drew so much attention that many non-Russian followers were asking how she could live in such cold temperatures for so long, to which she replied in another post:
"I’ll answer to the most frequent question: how do we live at temperature -40 for more than 1 month? Well, a man gets accustomed to everything. And if you have been living here since your birth, you just don’t notice and don’t think that these conditions are something extraordinary. There are people living in the conditions even more extreme.
What is our past time here? Well, some lucky people can go in the countryside, to visit Lena pillars for example. Or those who are more busy, can make a snowy fireworks. Do you know about this popular pastime in Russia where the frost is hard? Well, the hot water is thrown up and it transforms into the snow and vapor! Would you like to try it? (sic)"
And do you want to know what else Anastasia like to get up to in the harsh Russian winters? Dunking herself in freezing cold waters for fun.
Seriously, would you try this?
(Interestingly, the submerging of oneself into freezing cold waters originated as an Orthodox Christian ritual, and even President Putin has done it.)
Now, however, Anastasia has returned to the internet to upload another selfie, in which she shows the striking contrast between winter and summer in her area. In Yakutsk, it gets extremely cold in the winter months but temperatures soar to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or even higher in the summer.
However, while the sunshine may be welcome, it also brings with it the most annoying of problems: mosquitoes. And when I say mosquitoes, I mean hoards of them.
According to Anastasia, after going for a walk in the field, she ended up being covered by over 60 mosquitoes.
Speaking with The Siberian Times, Anastasia said:
"The picture was made in seconds.
"After taking it, I just jumped on the bicycle and rushed away. In fact, you do not feel them so much on your face. More sensitive are the legs, arms and back.
"So for a few seconds, I can endure this. Mind you, I have a sudden thought: can they bite me to death? "
You can see the post for yourself below:
Yep. Certainly not my idea of a nice and relaxing summer's stroll...
And although it may seem like some sort of chance plague, swarms of mosquitoes infiltrate the region every year from May to September, making summers particularly difficult.
"Arctic mosquito swarms are the stuff of legend. Some of them contain hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of insects," The Atlantic noted in 2015. "If the Arctic continues to warm, and there is every indication that it will, the summer tundra may soon be abuzz with larger and larger clouds of biting, blood-sucking insects."
A keen photographer, Anastasia also spoke out about the unexpected fame her original selfie brought her: "My family make jokes about it time to time, saying something like ‘you’re a star now’, Of course, I didn’t expect anything like that to happen."
Unsurprisingly, given that absolutely nobody like mosquitoes, people were left horrified by the image, with one user writing: "Oh my God, No! And people complain about mosquitoes in the Coachella Valley! Compared to this pic, so don’t even come close!!! I work for the Mosquito District btw".
Another user asked the question that was on everyone's lips: "Why are you allowing so many mosquitoes to land on you?? GROSS!"
While Anastasia's selfies are undoubtedly impressive, is it worth covering yourself in mosquitoes for the sake of a few thousand likes?
