Stockholm Instagram influencer Natalie Schlater has quit social media, after receiving backlash for a post people have dubbed as “narcissistic” and “insensitive”.
The influencer, and model was slammed online, after she uploaded a photo of herself in a white bikini overlooking a rice field in the Balinese town Canggu.
Schlater wrote alongside the post: “Thinking about how different my life is from the man picking in the rice field every morning.”
Ms Shlater, who had close to 12,000 social media followers prior to quitting, infuriated followers, who labelled her “insensitive,” and dubbed the post a “humble brag.”
One user said “It is the epitome of the social media generation,”
“The rice farmer is probably more content with their life though and not the status chasing like the rest of us,” another added.
Another follower commented, “This is one of the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Ms Schlater addressed the post, justifying her choice. A now-deleted follow-up shows the influencer claiming she’s been “misunderstood” by the post.
“I am very aware of my privileges and how grateful I am for all that i have in my life and I was recognising how hardworking and unbelievably kind the Indonesian people are and never meant to come off [as] disrespectful,” she wrote.
“That being said I am so sorry if I hurt hurt anyone’s feelings which was never ever my intention.”
“Please be kinder to one another and spread kindness and not hate.”
In a Bored Panda interview, the ex-influencer said “It breaks my heart to see this photo turned into a different light than it was originally meant to be.”
“I have always loved the Indonesian people and their culture and overall attitude towards life and the people who come to visit their country.”
“I worked extremely hard to save up enough money to go on that trip as I do not come from wealth as it may look like from social media.”
“[I] completely understand that my caption can be taken wrong because of the social climate we live in today and if I could go back in time I wish I would have just worded it differently.”
Influencers have been all over the news of late, with one even Instagram influencer recently faking an entire Coachella trip to prove how easy it is to deceive social media users. Just last year, a movie about influencers was made.
