A new reality

Is there a steeper learning curve than that scaled by the influencer Zoe Rae, who recently left Bali in high dudgeon because, "it's not how it looked on Instagram"?

- Jane Clifton

She huffed off to Dubai, which apparently - and without wishing to deter anyone - does look how it does on Instagram.

By all means laugh, but in influencer parlance, she stood in her truth and called Bali out as a lived experience she did not choose to include in her truth stance.

It would be nice to think that in her ingenuous absurdity, she could be the priceless catalyst to re-frame the whole influencer/lifestyle brand/selfie-core firmament. Might her unwanted lived experience mark the moment that curated content looped so far round the bend that it actually recognised its own backside and got such a fright that it remembered that thing called reality?

There have been indications that the movement to curate away real life's tiresomeness was getting out of hand. One website has taken it upon itself to rate the attractiveness of diners at various New York restaurants, enabling other diners to spare themselves the horror of going somewhere where merely ordinary-looking people might lurk.