Byron Denton's Social Experiment
When Byron Denton was scourging his Instagram, there was something that caught his attention, something he had never realized before.
Many Instagram accounts were solely dedicated to showing off the expensive and elite lifestyle of some people. Many of these rich kids had millions of followers. Many people apparently enjoyed watching the lives of that privileged 1%.
Byron Decides To Begin A Social Experiment
That's when Byron came up with a witty idea. He had been thriving to become Instafamous for quite a while, but now he had come up with a plan.
A simple look at Byron's instagram account is enough to realize his most popular video is titled: “I faked being a rich b on Instagram for a week and this is what happened…”. Read on to find out exactly how the guy pulled this off.
Planning For The Elaborate Prank Begins
Danton's prank required certain planning to begin with. Firstly, if he wanted his plan to work out, it was important for him to define what his aim was.
The truth of the matter was that the instagrammer wanted to prove that by posting a certain type of photos, he'd gain more followers. In other words, the more expensive the photo looked, the more people would feel attracted to it.
Beginning The Deception
After deciding on which countries he'd be allegedly visiting, he uploaded some deceiving tweets and photos announcing his impending trip.
Byron really had really thought it through. To make the whole thing look more real, he even took it upon himself to upload several stories per day.
Let The Fake Vacation Begin
And one click away, Byron was far far away in Spain. He left nothing to chance. From photos of empty suitcases to fake locations, his ruse was perfectly designed.
In fact, he actually put a Spanish TV series in the background of one of his stories so that people wouldn't question the authenticity of his sudden travel plans. Swift move!
Byron Takes On Spain And France
What screams "lavish lifestyle" more than a trip to Paris? The Youtuber certainly understood his audience, and photoshopped himself right in front of several historical landmarks.
In fact, this one in front of the Eiffel Tower could have fooled me. He did a fantastic job making it look believable!
Explanations In Order
As we begin to dive more and more into the behind-the-scenes of this elaborate prank, we can't help but wonder: what was the Instagrammer's inspiration? How did he come up with such a plan?
Byron explained that it all began when he read about a model that had photoshopped herself in different places. After her story went viral, Byron got the idea.
Inspiration Comes From The Most Unlikeliest Places
To put it straight, Byron wanted to prove that the dream-like Instagram lifestyle some rich kids present to the world is quite easy to fake. Put some filters and photoshop, and you've got yourself a lavish lifestyle.
He realized that distorting reality was actually very easy, much easier than he'd thought. He actually believed that this was kind of scary!
The Distortion Of Reality Through Instagram
The dark side to this whole business was made clear to Byron early on in the experiment. In indirect ways, Instagram fomented the portrayal of these fake and lavish lifestyles.
If you wanted more followers and likes you had to look and shop a certain way. Instagram was the perfect tool to present the ideal version of oneself, and boy, did he take advantage of that.
Byron's Feed Get's Fancier
It seemed to Byron that his fancy trip wasn't enough. In order to truly convince his audience that he was one of the rich kids on Instagram, he'd have to start dressing the part.
First, a visit to Louis Vuitton seemed in order. He made a show out of spending "way too much money" on his account, and his popularity only rocketed.
Fancy Clothes, Trips and Style
It didn't stop with Vuitton. The kid also photoshopped himself in a well-known and expensive Balenciaga shirt. By this point, Byron had had plenty of experience and his photoshopping skills were on point.
Take this picture for instance. In it, he's seen living the good life in an expensive and private jet. Reality was far from that. He was actually laying back on his couch.
Truly Unbelievable Lifestyle
Up to this point, some of his followers started growing suspicious. Was he really on a private jet? That was pretty hard to believe.
In response, Byron stepped up his game and posted some airplane videos that belonged to somebody else and tapped his voice over it. Suspicions were settled for a while.
The Greatest Deceiver Of Them All
Denton's feed had gotten so convincing, that even some of his close friends started to believe he'd suddenly become a millionaire. For his last post, he decided to do yet another fashion take.
It seemed as if his followers had gone crazy for that sort of thing. So he knew what his plan was: Balenciaga look all over and let the likes role in.
Reflections Sink In
Throughout this whole experiment, Denton realized that it was shockingly obvious that the photos in which he appeared to be wearing designer clothes and expensive things had earned him thousands of likes.
And it was even more obvious that these fake pictures depicting a lavish lifestyle received a way more likes than the ones in which he wore his real clothes.
Time To Tell The Truth
The fact of the matter is that Denton wasn't really interested in presenting a fake version of himself on his account. At least not forever!
He just wanted to prove that the more you spent on your account, the more popular you got. In February of 2019, he decided he'd had enough of the experiment.
Truth Revealed
Byron decided it was finally time to confess his prank and explain in detail how he'd fooled everyone in his Instagram account.
In addition, he shared the conclusions he'd gotten to along the way. "I feel like a lot of people get rich by doing this", the Instagrammer claimed.
Behind The Scenes
What caught people's attention more than the way in which Denton had managed to fool them, was actually the importance of what he was saying.
Nobody had really taken the time to reflect on why lavish Instagram accounts get more views and popularity. It was thanks to this boy's finding that the matter was beginning to be discussed.
Rocks Along The Wide
However, Byron publicly confessed that not everybody had bought into his apparent new wealth. He posted some comments and private messages of his more skeptical followers.
In fact, some of the pictures had comments claiming he was just doing a 'fake vacation'. But let's not forget that most people totally fell for it!
Conclusions To The Social Experiment
Byron learned plenty of things at the end of his fake journey. The evidence of his experiment was all over his account: his followers had increased, and the number of likes and comments as well.
Even the number of people that watched his videos had had a boost! It seemed that a wealthy lifestyle had had an impact on the rest of his personal accounts.
Social Experiment Goes Viral
Soon after hearing about this social experiment, several news outlets got wing of what Byron had done. Never had he expected to be on the limelight to such an extent.
The prank went viral in no time, and he was even interviewed by the Daily Mail. There are plenty of Youtube reaction videos that are hilarious to watch.
Last But Not Least
While Denton had loads of fun doing this social experiment, he realized something as well. > “The reason people are so obsessed with celebrities was due to the fact they can afford to live a life not everyone can”, Byron said.
Now, that really gives us a lot to think about, doesn't it? Now you now: don't believe anything you see on Instagram. It might just be a social experiment or a way to gain followers!