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The photos of Coachella have been around Instagram lately and Byron Denton, 19, wanted to prove that everything you see on social media does not exactly match what it seems.
YouTuber, based in London, had already deceived the Internet by pretending to have a rich lifestyle on Instagram. It's recently set the goal of pretending to spend a weekend at Coachella.
"After my first joke went so well, I thought it would be fun to see if I could still deceive people," Denton told INSIDER. "So with Coachella being such a big thing across social media, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try to fool people a second time."
Denton began his joke with some misleading stories on Instagram in which he claimed to be at the airport alongside his friend and friend YouTuber, Anastasia Kingsnorth.
Kingsnorth and he then posed for some photos in outfits ready for Coachella, which they modified to look like Coachella in the background.
Denton released his first modified photo of the festival on April 20, which garnered over 13,000 mentions I'd like at that time.
The photo shows him eating watermelon sitting on what appears to be a field in Coachella, although the photo was taken in a nearby park.
He posted another photo later in the day, showing it in front of the big wheel of the festival, which had more than 17,000 "likes" at the time of publication of this article.
Of course, the photo was also taken at the park, not at Coachella.
He also shared some Instagram stories that gave the impression that he was in the crowd, even though the videos came from the stories of other people who were actually at Coachella.
Kingsnorth also shared pictures that seemed to show him at the festival.
Denton finally revealed that his trip was a fake in a YouTube video chronicling this elaborate plan, which he explained to INSIDER that it was more difficult than his first joke.
"At the beginning of this joke, I thought it would be as simple as the last one in terms of editing," he told us. "However, this time, I literally found myself in a completely fabricated place, not just adding some logos on t-shirts, it turned out to be quite difficult!"
Although his previous joke was ultimately a success, he said that he had learned lessons that had helped make Coachella's farce a little more believable.
"The first time I did a dummy joke, I shared too much!" he said. "I thought too much about everything to try to convince people that it was true.I ended up posting a lot more than I would naturally, so this time, I did not too much shared, which also intrigued people.
Once he revealed that the trip to Coachella was a hoax, he said the reaction was quite mixed, with some people knowing his last joke.
"I have the impression that many people are now following my Instagram just to try to surprise me when making these videos," he told INSIDER. "So a lot of people came to say that they knew it was a joke, which made me think that everyone thought that way!"
Denton and Kingsnorth also encountered a slight problem when they attended a Shawn Mendes concert in London while they were supposed to be in California. Some fans noticed the duo during the concert, but they remained discreet enough that the hoax could continue.
Some people have managed to spot a few minor editing mistakes in their photos, such as a speaker who noticed multiples of the same people in the background. Denton said it removed most of those comments that claimed to have published fake photos to maintain the illusion.
Denton says most of his supporters have fallen into the trap
"However, many people say that they believed all that," he said. "Even my family and friends came to tell me that they were shocked and that they believed in every ticket!"
Now that the joke is over, Denton hopes it will remind people of how easy it is to present a perfect but false picture online.
"I think if anyone can take something away from what I've done, it's that you really should not compare your life and what you have with someone else." Other, whether you thought you knew them or not, "he said. "Especially on social media, because as I've demonstrated now, it's so easy to lead a fake online life." So, comparing yourself to something that's not even a reality can be very harmful. "
Read more:A 19 year old man who pretended to be rich on Instagram says he is "shocked" by his ease.
Denton believes that the pressure to live a luxurious lifestyle, whether real or not, is motivated by the life shared by wealthy celebrities on social networks
"I think the temptation to simulate a lifestyle has just made us so exposed to the way people like Kim Kardashian live," he told INSIDER. "Without social media, we would not know what bags she has, nor what shoes she has just bought, but thanks to Instagram and other platforms, we can see it."
He also points out that social media often presents a limited and highly organized version of the lives of many people.
"It's a lifestyle that many of us would like to live in, so we feel we have to live up to that level, especially if you're part of social media yourself," Denton said. "Everyone is trying to improve all others and the only way to know who is doing better or who is more successful is to share what each person chooses to share."
Denton says that he himself experiences some of these pressures, though he has learned not to compare his life to that of others.
"Personally, I felt a lot of pressure to be a way to succeed," he said. "However, I have now realized that I would rather be successful at being me rather than trying to be somebody else."
Check out Byron Denton on Instagram and YouTube.
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