Lord of the Flies: How Social Media Influencers Swarm Conflict Like Flies on Poop
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of stranded boys descends into chaos, their primal instincts overtaking any semblance of civility as they turn on one another in a savage bid for power and survival. The island becomes a microcosm of human nature stripped bare—brutal, competitive, and swarming with desperation. Fast forward to the digital age, and we see a strikingly similar scene playing out on our screens. Social media influencers, in their relentless pursuit of clicks, likes, and relevance, are like flies reveling in the fetid glory of a fresh pile of poop—where every steaming mound of conflict is a banquet they can’t resist. What fuels this frenzy? A noxious blend of ambition, algorithm-driven rewards, and an insatiable appetite for the spotlight.
The Feeding Frenzy Begins
Picture this: an influencer slips up—maybe a clumsy tweet, a whispered scandal, or a leaked clip. Instantly, the air thickens with the hum of wings as the swarm converges. Conflict drops like a ripe turd in the digital pasture, and influencers descend, their beady eyes gleaming with delight. They churn out reaction videos, sling hot takes, and weave sanctimonious threads, each one elbowing for a taste of the mess. It’s not about justice or morality; it’s about reveling in the stink. Every retweet, every view, every barbed quip is a chance to scoop up the juicy bits of attention and smear them across their own feeds. The original blunder is just the dung that starts it all—a pungent invitation for flies to feast. Like flies, they don’t care about the source; they’re here for the warm, squishy chaos it provides.
This isn’t some internet-only oddity. Golding’s boys pounced on Piggy and Simon because ripping others apart was the quickest path to power. Today’s influencers wield biting captions and cancel campaigns instead of spears, but the game’s the same. Conflict is their poop, and they’re the flies that thrive on its fumes. Relevance is the prize, and in a world where attention is king, nothing beats a good, stinking pile to roll around in.
Clicks Over Camaraderie
Why does this unfold so reliably? The machinery of social media is a fly’s paradise—a sprawling dung heap where every spat and feud lands with a splat. Platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok are engineered to reward engagement, and conflict is the ripest poop of all. Algorithms ignore the ants toiling away at quiet support; they amplify the flies that plunge into the filth, their wings glistening with the residue of drama. An influencer who sidesteps the pile might as well be invisible, while one who wallows in it—dissing a rival, fanning a feud, or gloating over a downfall—emerges coated in the glow of viral success, legs dripping with the spoils.
The pursuit of clicks turns camaraderie into a joke. Why build when you can buzz? Solidarity is a dry patch of dirt; conflict is a moist, fly-covered mound of opportunity. One beef can birth a swarm of content—videos, posts, livestreams—all of them flies jockeying to lay claim to the choicest clumps. Truth and nuance get trampled underfoot; the swarm is too busy reveling in the mess. When conflict plops onto the scene, it’s not a crisis—it’s a buffet, and the flies can’t get enough.
The Human Element: Schadenfreude and Spectacle
Influencers don’t swarm alone; they perform for an audience hooked on the stench. Schadenfreude—the glee at another’s tumble—is as old as dirt, and social media piles it high. When conflict hits, it’s not just poop to the influencers—it’s a stage. The flies dive in, rolling in the muck, turning every slip-up into a circus of squabbling wings and snapping jaws. In Lord of the Flies, the boys’ savagery was a brutal show of human nature unmasked. Here, the influencer swarm is a digital rerun: conflict is the dung, and they’re the flies that make it their playground, buzzing louder with every fresh drop.
This is the scroll we all know: a fly-blown wasteland where conflict reigns supreme. Influencers don’t just stumble into the poop—they seek it out, dance in it, thrive in it. Every clash is another pile to conquer, and they’re the flies who can’t resist the reek.