It’s the season for vacation photos. Beach snaps, festival pictures, and photos of friends and family with swimming pools and weddings in the background flood my Instagram feed. I love seeing what everyone is up to.
Given my job as a social media and disinformation correspondent, it’s perhaps no surprise that I’m a bit addicted to my social media feeds. Scrolling through the sunny side of Instagram feels like a positive antidote to the dark underworld I investigate online.
However, you won’t find such posts on my own social media profiles. I have a golden rule. No one from my life – unless it’s someone I’ve worked with or interviewed – appears on my public profiles. My 19-year-old tabby cat, Mia, is the only exception.
Of course I’ll post a picture from my vacation – the view or a snap of me – but good luck guessing who I’m there with. And no, it’s not a challenge to figure that out.
This may seem a little cautious. I’m 28, so a lot of people my age are constantly posting updates about what they’re up to on their Instagram stories. But every time I’ve shared even the smallest detail about my personal life, it’s been picked up by dedicated trolls or used to impersonate me through fake accounts, disinformation, and the like. I’ve received thousands of abusive messages and death threats sparked by my research and podcasts.
Yes, my experience is extreme. But I think it raises important questions. Right now, sharing the most authentic version of yourself on social media is actively encouraged. That can be a secret weapon for gaining and keeping a loyal audience. But what if you want a boundary between your public and private life?
It wasn’t always like this when it came to my social media profiles. I’m part of the generation that set up Facebook and Instagram at school. At 14 and 15, I posted silly status updates, photos from school trips and birthdays – and those snaps later became photos of nights out and graduations when I went to college. I never had any reason to believe that would change – until I got burned.
When the England women’s team won the 2022 European Championship, I tweeted about how I’ve been going to football matches with my dad since I was four, and shared a picture of me at that age wearing a white Tottenham shirt and shorts with bright yellow trim.
My dad (who isn’t a public figure or anything) was standing next to me. Within minutes there were abusive messages from complete strangers directed at both of us. And these weren’t Arsenal or Chelsea fans, by the way. My job means I’m a target for a group of dedicated conspiracy theorists who believe almost everything is staged – from Covid-19 to wars around the world to 9/11.
From then on, I only shared what was necessary on social media and posted all personal photos only on the private accounts of my friends and family.
Even my cat, who I’ve featured in my snaps because she’s a little harder to track down, has been targeted by trolls. A fake account was set up to (satirically) imitate me with misogynistic innuendo and refer to her as Chairman Mao. She took it well. Not because she liked the joke – more because she can’t read.
Other fake accounts have invented names and details about my family members, re-shared my pictures They pretend to be me – or just pick up every little detail about my life that they can find out.
Sometimes I’m disappointed that I can’t share my whole life online. When I was watching the Euros or Glastonbury last year, I’d take a photo with my close friends and they’d say “fine, let me take one of you alone” so I had something to post on my public profile. They’re used to it now – and probably pretty happy that they haven’t become the new target of my trolls.
Millennials and Gen Z are known for snooping on social media. My friends and I were able to find out almost everything about someone our buddy went on a date with after 30 seconds on Google and a glance at Instagram. But for these very reasons, I know that people with truly bad intentions can track someone down all too easily.
But I really love my job and I look at it like this: This is the price I pay for it. But I don’t want my friends and family to have to pay that price too. I expect the trolling, but it’s not something that the people around you put up with.
Of course, you can find out a lot about me online if you want to – but more about my work. It’s not about keeping everything totally secret. It’s just about what I reveal and what I don’t in my own profiles.
I also hope that everyone who listens, watches and reads me gets to know me through my journalistic work. That probably tells them a lot more about me than all the pictures in the world I could share.
This week I was
Watch out… football. I love going to Tottenham Hotspur games every week with my mum and dad. We were back at Spurs’ stadium when we played Bayern Munich. That meant a final farewell to the legend Harry Kane – who now plays for the German team after leaving last summer. It also meant a return to the long walk from Seven Sisters tube station. As much as I loved watching England play and was lucky enough to attend a few games in Germany during the European Championships, nothing beats club football. Not just the games, but also the whole routine and everything that goes with it.
Travel… to Colorado and Baltimore in the USA for a new podcast series in which I examine the social media background of the US elections. There I was in a town called Green Mountain Falls chat about conspiracy theories. Then to Dublin for a BBC panorama I’m currently making a documentary about the impact of social media on children – and ended up going to Edinburgh to speak at the Fringe Festival. All of this involved a fair amount of jet lag and a lot of time on different forms of transport. I also talked a lot and hardly slept.
Shopping… the summer sales have just started and I love a good discount, especially on clothes. I’ve started scrolling through the deals every night before I go to sleep to look for the best deals. That’s probably bad phone hygiene. My top tip: sign up to all the email lists so you’re the first to take advantage of the special offers before all the good stuff is gone. Don’t be fooled by the initial discounts – they usually ramp up towards the end of August. Oh, and if you add something to your cart late at night, wait until the morning to see if you really want to buy it.
Marianna’s book Among the Trolls: My Journey Through Conspiracy Land is now out
