How Much Should You Share Online? A Look at TikTok Star Cancelations

I have definitely done my fair share of oversharing online. I was a tween when the Internet became big and social media was in its beginning stages and was so intriguing. I posted whatever I wanted and my parents didn't understand how that could be a mistake down the line, and since it was so new, no one did! But now that we have had over a decade to watch how poorly photos or status updates can age online, you would think people would be a little more careful.

Since the beginning of mommy bloggers sharing photos and updates of their baby's life to family YouTube channels, there has been a debate on whether or not parents should share personal aspects of their children's lives before they are old enough to consent to do so. Never mind consent, there's also the larger issue of child predators and the conversation on whether or not sharing this personal insight into a child's life is exploitative. Everyone has their own opinion, and does and shares what works for them. There are several TikTok famous babies and families--ones that I even follow that have recently been getting "canceled" with subreddits dedicated to watching every little thing they do wrong or right.

On to TikTok influencers, I used to follow a few who now also have subreddit pages dedicated to discussing their every move. One even resulted in a "cancelation". By becoming a public figure and an open book, there comes the opportunity for people on the Internet to dissect every detail about their past and present. So, if you want to become an influencer, where do you draw the line? How much should you share? Do people actually get "canceled"?--in my opinion, nope.

Consider the TikTok influencer, Christina Najjar, AKA Tinx. She has described herself as bicoastal (meaning living in Los Angeles and NYC), and growing up in London and attending Stanford University for college. I will admit when I first found her on TikTok, posting hot takes on celebrity news and her favorite Amazon and crazy expensive clothing and food finds, I thought she was a self-made millionaire with a successful marketing company or something. I don't know why, but I was naive enough to think that.

Turns out, she comes from a very wealthy family. There is nothing wrong with that, but once people started figuring this out they felt deceived by her because of her continuous efforts to seem relatable. She was officially "canceled" when someone found old Tweets and Instagram stories that were quite frankly, mean and cringeworthy. The ones that stuck out to me the most were her Insta stories criticizing celebrity looks at the Met Gala as recent as 2019, which was what made me unfollow her. It did seem like she had created an online persona with the sole intent to become famous, and wasn't as genuine as she appeared to be online. However, everyone makes mistakes and also you don't have to like everyone (and we really don't even know her). You can always simply unfollow. But that's not enough for some people.

An entire subreddit dedicated to her was created months ago, but really took off when the Tweets were found. Tinx then lost thousands of Instagram followers but is still thriving in the sense that no sponsors dropped her and her quality of life has not changed. The people who stopped following her described their feelings via TikToks and comments stating it felt like a boyfriend had cheated on them, or really that they were completely blind-sided and thought Tinx was a different kind of person. If anything, her following and engagement on TikTok has gone down and her main shift in focus has now been influencing on Instagram, even though she got famous from the Zillennial video sharing platform.

Of the mommy influencers of TikTok, one of the biggest and most popular parents is the young mom of twins, Maia Knight. I follow her, my mom follows her, and we love seeing her kids being adorable and going out and doing fun things. However, one particular subreddit dedicated to Maia criticizes her parenting, accuses her of exploiting her kids for fame and wealth, and has dug into her personal life and past relationships. Maia now has addressed the people of Reddit in her videos and she still has people commenting on her parenting and life choices under her

videos. One thing I think most people forget is that there are creeps in this world, and the Internet is a dark hole in which a lot of them can live and be terrible without getting caught. I think we want to believe that people who follow us online are all good people, but that's just not true. In my opinion, parents do need to be cautious about what they post about their kids. But again, I don't have kids and I haven't become famous from being a parent. How do I know what I would be like if that did happen?

All of the digging that people do on the Internet online is honestly impressive, but what's the point? Why do we care so much about how another person lives their life? The fact of the matter is, we all love to offer our opinions on how a famous person should live their lives because they are showing us a version of their life that they want us to see and we feel like we know them enough to be able to offer advice. Even by writing this article, someone could argue that I am being too invasive and I shouldn't care about these people. But I do, because I am so intrigued by how other people live their lives and their habits and likes and dislikes.

It's kind of crazy how influencers and just famous people in general have always been idols to people--and we don't even know them and they will never know us. Especially when I have nothing going on and am just killing time, I love to check in on how people are going about their day or are on their fun vacations while I sit stuck at my desk and computer. But should I even be seeing what people are doing at 10am on a Thursday? 20 years ago, no.

One of my favorite things to say about social media is that when you were a kid and weren't invited to a birthday party, you didn't have to see it happening in real time--and now with social media, you can. The negative implications of social media stare us right in the eyes but we choose to looks away because it's so fascinating and can be so fun. We feel left out, get fomo, and feel inadequate looking at other people doing something interesting or having a life that seems unattainable. I know I spend too much time on my phone but what about these influencers who depend on their phone for their livelihood, how is their mental health? How will they and their kids feel in 10 years looking back at these posts and scandals? For now, all we can do is wait and keep scrolling.