Dark side of social media: How TikTok star Ava Majury was almost killed earning money online

tech.hindustantimes.com:

How to earn money online from social media is a common refrain from all those people looking to be influencers. However, for 15-year old TikTok star Ava Majury, the dark side of social media fame was revealed and she almost got killed by a stalker at her door after he bought her photos for $300 each. The incident took place in July 2021 in Naples, Florida, where the girl lives with her parents. Majury joined TikTok first during the lockdown of 2020, aged 13. She found success selling her own photos, videos and other things online. Just like many of her peers, she would post videos of her lip syncing to popular songs, dancing, playing pranks and funny moments with her family. Nothing different from what hundreds of thousands of teenagers across the world and in India do. Some of them are very ambitious and want to be social media influencers and this can lead to earning money online.

But just like Majury, no one would ever think that the social media entrepreneurship would end up in a near-death situation. While social media influencing is an extremely attractive work with wide-scale fame and sponsorship money, many of these social media celebrities are very young in age. And many lack the sensibility of drawing a line between their personal and professional life. This can not only lead to stress and depression due to online trolling and constant pressure of getting content viral but can sometimes lead to real-life violence. Majury is not the first to go through such an experience, and she won’t be the last. But her story is a rude awakening of the need to be more self conscious while using social media and never sharing any personal information online.

After joining the platform, Majury soon rose to fame. Between her three