Stephanie Rice: Social media is so superficial

Stephanie Rice

Former Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Stephanie Rice, 29, who has 103,000 followers on Instagram and 130,000 on Twitter, has said that she hates people who call themselves 'social media influencers'. The reason she cited was that on most occasions their messages are contradictory and misleading.

"I hate the word "influencer" because I would never call myself an influencer, if I am able to be influential, that's a gift, but I don't try to be influential," Rice told Britain's daily The Daily Telegraph. The Australian swimmer, who won three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, called the self-proclaimed social media stars hypocrites, especially when they post messages regarding healthy eating.

"I predict that probably in two years, a lot of influencers won't be influencers because one minute they're posting about something healthy and the next about junk food. And it's like, 'Well which one are you, who are you? I don't know you'. Social media is so superficial, I get really over it," she added.

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