Status

She was motivated by fame and fortune–everything she had to say dripped with brilliance and intuition. Her followers ate it up, and she lived for the attention. It fueled her day and spurred her passion. She didn’t know how she’d gotten through the day without it. 

Here schedule was incredibly busy, even if her family didn’t understand it. They believed she was living in a dream world–drenched in vanity. She was merely giving her followers what she wanted, and she happily kept all of her different social media accounts updated with carefully planned and calculated videos and images. 

The likes kept coming, and and she kept posting more and more to feed her ego and the need for content as well. She was happy to oblige, and soon, every minute of every day was either spent posting somthing on social media or planning for the next new piece of content. She through every fiber of her being into all of it, and her effort was being greatly rewarded. 

She was the paragon of style–the ultimate trendsetter. Her finger was on the pulse of popular culture, and her followers looked to her for validation and sage advice. They begged her to put her life on film and go entirely live with her glorious existance. 

Her sister warned against this. If she wanted to stay on top she needed to continue to carefully curate her image and only allow live videos to happen when the situation fit that image. 

She laughed. Why would they ridicule her for something they asked for? She forged ahead with her plans and the community was ecstatic to hear. They eagerly logged on and waited with baited breath for her live-life to begin. 

For the first week the shine of newness kept her brand and image strong, but that could only sustain her for so long. The numbers started to fall and the hateful comments began. She did her best to keep ahead of the bad press, but it grew like a poisonous monster before her eyes. 

Her heart broke as her carefully cultivated image started to sift like sand through her fingers. Her family tried to console her–fame wasn’t everything. She would find a new path, and a new identity. 

But she refused to be consoled. Her online persona was her life. Her comunity gave her the breath in her body. Without all of that she had nothing left. The numbers on the screen were her purpose and validation–she had nothing left. 

All she had built crumbled in less than twenty four hours after the deluge began. She was vilified and condemned, and she had less followers now than when her rise to stardom began. 

She could not move from her chair and she saw nothing but the falling numbers on the screen. Her heart broke and she didn’t know how to go on. 

Her sister screamed in shock when she went into her room the next day. Her once vibrant sister was collapsing mummified corpse. The life from her was gone all because she lived for the validation of strangers, and not something  grounded in reality.