But what happens when influencers start posting content promoting negative things, and why do they choose to do so?

Associate professor in human development and family studies at Michigan State University Dr. Megan Maas said influencers promote negative content because of the attention it brings to their profile page.

"I think what people don't understand is that negative content can be very lucrative, because that eye catching, extreme, crazy content sometimes is more likely to go viral, or is more likely to be shared, not necessarily because people agree with it, but because they think it's so outrageous that (it) can bring a lot of eyeballs, a lot of viewers, and then eventually some followers along," Maas said. "That then reinforces those people, who are posting that content, to keep posting more of it in order to get that attention."

Maas also said with all the attention creators receive from the audience, they won’t be stopping anytime soon.

"People think that they're getting this like rogue insider information, and so they continue to go to those accounts, but not realizing anything they're contributing to how lucrative they are, and then, that cycle doesn't stop," Maas said. "There's no incentive to stop posting the really extreme negative content."

Similarly, communication senior Precious Wright said the attention received from the negative content posted may fuel the influencer to continue posting.

"Just because of the influence and the attention that comes with that, I feel like a lot of people are heavily influenced, and (things) that (are) the opposite of the normal tends to draw attention," Wright said. "So the more influence that it brings, the more likely an influencer will be to promote those things."

One influencer on TikTok has become a phenomenon due to her content that encourages and promotes unsafe weight loss methods. Liv Schmidt, who is now banned from TikTok, had amassed more than 670,000 followers before she was forced to leave the platform.

"The research shows that people who create content, they're doing it because they want to change opinion, or they want people to know them," Maas said. "So if there is any kind of exchange, whether it's in the form of likes or comments or shares or engagement with their content, then that's going to reinforce them to push more of that out."

Journalism junior Justina Bloch said when it comes to followers of Liv Schmidt and similar creators, the appeal can rely heavily on viewers wanting to join certain trends.

"I think people want to look like everyone else, and they want to be on the trends," Bloch said. "I think that's why people keep going back to these influencers and seeing ways that they can lose weight or make their body image look a certain way because they think if someone else is doing it, they should be doing it too, even though that's not the case."

Without social media, these influencers would most likely not have a platform to promote these negative things. Wright said social media platforms, to some extent, support influencers and individuals posting negative content through the lack of censorship.

"I believe that social media could possibly help support that by not censoring something, allowing for content to be posted without proper categorization," Wright said.

Bloch said differing social media algorithms support negative content cycling throughout the apps.

"I definitely think that social media platforms, like with the algorithm, people keep looking at it," Bloch said. "A lot of algorithms, they'll keep giving you posts that are related to that, and that just kind of causes people to go in a downward spiral of seeing things that are really harming their self image, and they don't even realize it when they're looking at it, so that can become a problem."

Maas said there are pros and cons to social media, which can support and oppose these negative promotional content.

"One of the pros and cons of social media is that anybody can create an account, so anybody can then amplify their voice and reach, you know, really an infinite amount of people," Maas said. "But unfortunately, that means that not only do positive messages or people who are underrepresented that have important messages to share get that platform, (but) people who have nasty, negative messages to share also get that platform."

To combat the fact that social media apps can, to an extent, support individuals and influencers who post negative promotional content, Maas said the apps should be responsible for restricting certain types of content.

​​"The Kids Online Safety Act has evolved over the years, and it's pretty close to being successful, but I think particularly for users who are under the age of 18, they need all the protection and hope they can get because with mental health crises continuing to rise in younger age groups, it's really important that we hold social media companies accountable for the types of content that can circulate on their platforms," Maas said.

Additionally, when it comes to social media in general, Bloch said it’s important not to believe everything viewers see on the apps.

"I think people really need to take a step back and realize that people kind of have a facade on social media platforms, so they really need to realize what's real and what's fake," Bloch said. "They need to realize that what you look like on social media is not going to be real life, and it's gonna be reflected differently so just kind of being aware of that and being conscious of that."

Maas thinks it's important to avoid digital interactions with harmful content to help prevent its spread on social media. 

"The more that we engage with it... we're not only just encouraging that particular content creator to create more of that content, we're actually influencing the whole algorithm to push out more related content," Maas said. "Because this can be so harmful, particularly to teens or other folks who don't necessarily have that discerning media literacy skill base yet, we can be contributing to some big problems by just engaging with the content or looking at it. So I would just encourage folks to really try not to share or look at negative content, even if you're doing it just for fun."