Is life really what it seems? It’s a question I asked myself recently, soon after scrolling mindlessly on my phone. Scrolling mindlessly isn’t something I do very much, except when I’m a bit under the weather. I’ve had a stubborn viral sinus cold that was probably picked up while travelling, and has made me too fuzzy-headed to feel productive reading and writing-wise. Anyway, rambling aside, I read an article about a completely AI-generated Instagram influencer who has millions of followers. Mia Zelu, if anyone cares to look her (it?) up. She is so realistic that she even has had marriage proposals, apparently.
AI generated or filters? How can you tell the difference?
Normally I feel quite savvy when it comes to spotting photos and videos that use filters, or AI. A lot of the people I follow on social media do. There are the obvious filters that stick cat whiskers on you, and there are any number of filters designed to make a person look younger/slimmer/smoother…. whatever you prefer. I have to admit, Mia Zelu’s Instagram videos looked so real that I honestly wouldn’t have known that she was an AI generated person if it wasn’t labelled in the account, which it is. To me, she appears as any real, but filtered, beautiful influencer otherwise appears on social media.
No filters for me, just au naturel
Personally I don’t use filters. I’m old enough to be beyond the vanity of my twenties, when I was modelling – and when I was considered, by societal standards, slim and attractive. I use my social media photos and videos to promote my books, so I feel that natural is best in my ‘talking’ videos. In my silly/wacky videos, I edit them using Canva Pro, but it is still me, as I am in reality, appearing in them, albeit often wearing silly costumes against various backgrounds. If you know me in real life, you’ll know I look exactly the same as I appear online.
The impact of high online visibility
Indeed, I’ve had one or two moments recently where I’ve seen the impact of my online visibility. During a shopping trip recently with my hubby and son, I was paying at the till, and the shop assistant said to me, “Leilanie?” Now, Belfast is a small town; the speaker could easily have been a former school friend or colleague, for all I knew. Turned out the person was someone I was connected with through the online writing community online, and hadn’t met in real life until that moment. Being recognised isn’t something new to me. After a newspaper article about The Blue Man appeared in Belfast Live I found it disconcerting to see comments on their Facebook page by people speculating about whether they knew me (“I went to primary school with her!”) and getting friend requests on my personal account by people hadn’t seen for decades. I’ve also been recognised at literary events in London and in Belfast; a London librarian recognised me while browsing in his Hammersmith library and this led to me participating in the Hammersmith and Fulham Arts festival, and in Belfast, I was recognised by an audience member at a poetry event who loved my poetry and brought me (copious amounts!) of wine as we discussed my work. But being recognised from people seeing my online videos was a new experience and, admittedly, temporarily disconcerting. You see, in real life I’m terribly introverted. Incredibly introverted. I’m happy to promote myself online, where the majority of my followers and readers are overseas, while I wander around seemingly anonymously in my hometown. To say that this was a reality check about my visibility is an understatement.
Don’t get me wrong: the shop seller was lovely and we had a good ‘real-life’ chat. The issue for me was metaphysical, about the impact of high online visibility. Visibility in videos helps to sell my books. That’s a fact, and I now have evidence for this: 70% of my sales in 2025 so far are coming from organic sources, and only 30% from sponsored ads. If you’re an author reading this post, you’ll know that paid advertising isn’t cheap: it can be £0.50 per click and doesn’t always guarantee a sale, and clicks add up quickly. I make my videos to promote my books, but this inevitably leads to me promoting myself in the process, as part of my author brand.
Can technology help us to live forever?
Getting back to the topic of online presence: it’s a fact that we live in a youth-obsessed culture. What else would cause people to use filters that smooth out their wrinkles and slim down their waistlines if not for societal pressure to look eternally young? Is that going to help us to live forever? Maybe in an AI generated form. This is already the case in movies, where deceased actors have been recreated to reprise their roles, or older actors have been able to appear looking as they did decades ago. But, technology dates, and technology changes, and I for one do not think this is the way to live forever.
Here’s how to live forever
If you are an author, you are already taking steps to live forever, through each story you write. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest story ever written. It was written on cuneiform tablets about 5000 years ago (that’s off the top of my head – you can fact check the exact date through a search). Imagine if your story outlived you by 5000 years. In 5000 years, the world will be completely different. There will be different technology – or none. My books are archived at the legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland. That means, my novels, short story collections and poetry books will be kept for hundreds of years – maybe longer. In my opinion, the closest that a person can come to immortality is by doing something significant, that makes a cultural contribution and will carry through for generations to come.
How’s that for philosophical? Now my brain is tired. I’m off to have a cuppa coffee and to veg out alone. Lol.
Leilanie Stewart 