Dr. Ashwani Kumar
In the era of digital consumption, our phones are no longer just communication devices they have become virtual stages where people perform versions of themselves for an invisible audience. With the rise of short-form video content through platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, a new kind of cultural phenomenon has emerged one that prioritizes performance over principles, spectacle over substance. Social media influencers, once admired for creativity and content, are now frequently admired or rather followed for their ability to provoke, manipulate, and distract. The result is the mass seduction of public imagination through the glamour of artificial lives, viral content, and digital validation.
Unfortunately, the cost of this cultural drift is not just individuality is collective. It is moral, social, and legal. In a time where fame can be bought through calculated shamelessness, society is being reshaped by values that are fleeting, superficial, and often disturbing. A growing number of influencers have started building their online personas not on intellect, art, or creativity, but on vulgarity, manufactured controversies, and shameless exhibitionism. In this new ecosystem, morality is mocked, decency is outdated, and cultural responsibility is considered a burden.
Many of these influencers consciously seduce the public for cheap popularity and monetization. They create content not to inform, enlighten, or entertain in meaningful ways, but to shock, irritate, or titillate. Their goal is not connection, but consumption of likes, views, shares, and revenue. They sell their personal lives, expose their bodies, and violate social boundaries all in the name of content creation. What is most troubling is that they do so with pride, turning shame into a performance and commodifying it for mass attention.
This shamelessness is not without consequences. It creates a public nuisance that disturbs the peace of social life and agitates the cultural conscience of society. Educators, thinkers, and social activists who raise questions about this trend are often ridiculed as conservative or moral police. But their concerns are genuine: the cultural atmosphere is being polluted by digital noise, where everything is content and nothing is sacred. Public spaces are now sets for poorly acted reels, temples and markets are turned into backgrounds for vulgar dances, and relationships are treated as episodes for viewership.
This problem came to light in a tragic way with the death of Kamal Kaur, a social media influencer from Ludhiana known for her provocative and often vulgar content. Her online presence was built around bold behavior, luxury flaunting, and dramatic videos. She had millions of followers, and her content often crossed the boundaries of cultural sensitivity. But when she was killed under mysterious circumstances, it became apparent how hollow her fame truly was. Not even a dozen of her millions of followers came forward to seek justice for her. Her tragedy exposed the fundamental difference between being followed and being supported.
This raises a crucial point for anyone who aspires to become a digital influencer: followers are not fans. A follower might track your movements, view your videos, and even comment on your posts but that doesn’t mean they believe in you or stand by you. Many follow to criticize, mock, or simply gaze. Fans, on the other hand, are emotionally invested. They admire not just your content, but your character. They support your journey and defend your values. Kamal Kaur, despite her millions of followers, could not find a handful of real supporters when her life fell apart. Her fame was built on a fragile foundation attention without affection, visibility without respect.
This is not just a cultural issue it is a legal vacuum as well. India lacks a coherent legal framework to address the growing trend of vulgar, indecent, and socially disruptive content created by influencers. While cyber laws deal with explicit crimes like harassment or defamation, there are no clear provisions to tackle the social damage caused by habitual vulgarity or public nuisance through digital content. This absence of regulation allows digital spaces to become zones of moral anarchy where anything goes, as long as it gains views.
The normalization of such content, under the pretense of freedom of expression, is dangerous. A democratic society must protect expression, but it must also define limits where that expression becomes socially destructive. Without legal tools to address this, the cultural frustration continues to build and when society is not given lawful ways to respond, it often reacts through extreme or tragic incidents. A healthy democracy needs both freedom and responsibility. The absence of either leads to chaos.
Moreover, the irritation of cultural activists, community leaders, and thoughtful citizens grows when they see shameless content being rewarded, while values are ridiculed.
It becomes difficult to teach ethics to youth who see indecency going viral and respect going unnoticed. It becomes harder to raise children with a sense of dignity when social media rewards those who mock it. This is not just about tradition it’s about the emotional health of a society. A civilization cannot flourish where vulgarity is normalized, and responsibility is ignored.
Influencers must recognize their role in shaping public consciousness.
They must choose whether they want to chase temporary followers or cultivate loyal fans. They must ask themselves if their content contributes to the social imagination or corrodes it. Going viral is not the same as being respected. Being watched is not the same as being valued. And performance, no matter how glamorous, can never replace character.
If we continue down this path of digital seduction and shameless stardom, we are not just risking individual tragedies like that of Kamal Kaur we are putting the cultural and emotional foundation of society in danger. It is time for influencers to grow beyond algorithms, for governments to act beyond reaction, and for society to reflect beyond the screen.
(The writer is Assistant Professor, Chandigarh University)
