Meet the de-influencers trying to burst social media’s ‘perfect travel’ bubble

Have you seen the hashtag #deinfluencing that’s been making waves across TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit? It’s hardly surprising as many people have long been questioning not only if we really need all the products and experiences being pushed our way but, and most importantly, whether they are being honestly reviewed.

As one user says on r/deinfluencing subreddit, a forum on the social network site, Reddit, “Many of us are sick and tired of being treated as endless buying machines instead of people. There are products you need, and helpful product reviews—and then there are products you don’t need, being pushed onto you by social media personalities. We don’t need the latest, trendiest things to be happy.”

So what exactly is de-influencing?

You’ll see it take on different shapes, and you’ve probably seen some of them already, across fashion, lifestyle, beauty, and now in travel. It could be an influencer or brand calling out marketing images in a ‘social media versus reality’ post—perhaps contrasting a perfectly empty beach, closed for a photo shoot, with the same one on a typical busy day with barely enough room to lay down your beach towel.

It could also be someone calling out a hackneyed trope, from women moving through a sight in a ‘flying’ dress, to the much-done ‘hot-air balloons over Cappadocia, Turkey’ post, and instead, demanding more authentic and original content. Perhaps an influencer has gone behind the scenes to show the admin, travel sickness and stress of travel, alongside those poolside cocktails. Or it could be calling out travel products as an unnecessary spend, especially when sustainability, recycling, and the circular economy are paramount, and budgets are tighter for many people with discretionary purchases on the slide.