A lot on social media is staged to look good. Now we see where people are using toxic and unsafe environments to stage pictures. What does this say about us? Those of us who build the tools leading people to do this and those of us who do go to places to do selfies like that?

How is this a staged picture if it's actually an interesting location and view? It's not like they're pretending they're actually at the maldives.

they are definitely pretending they are somewhere they are not

mmmm no they are not. The place is literally (colloquially) called "Novosibirsk Maldives" and many of the posts acknowledge their location and even tag the power station in the post: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/199067307495333/...

Sure, "so fake just to appear so cool" is one aspect to it. There are surely users who scroll by and don't see a caption that the pretty lake is toxic.

But "do something stupid/dangerous to show how brave you are" is part of human nature.

Reminds me of this beautiful-but-poisonous "blue lagoon" that was dyed black to make it less appealing: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-22843481

This is not new. "The grapes in that ad are covered in vaseline! The milk is white glue!" And so on. People like pretty pictures. Maybe this news will spur a cleanup effort (spoiler: nope)

Well the reason there won't be a cleanup is that the lake exists for the power plant and the plant is still running, the US has similar water features near many of their power plants. According to the plant it's not poisonous per say, just not a good place to swim for irritant and safety reasons, and you don't want to drink the water. There are probably far more toxic naturally occurring areas than this based on the lack of immediate health impacts to visitors.

There's a real business model somewhere in here.

Buy/rent a small lake, turn it blue/pink/multi color, sell tickets to Instagrammers.

> There's a real business model somewhere in here.

https://petapixel.com/2019/05/22/the-chinese-instagram-villa...

Isn't this just kind of like wedding photography before Instagram? Photos everyone else has already done in fake "spur of the moment" situations, you're selling illusion just like P.T. Barnum.

That's basically what the museum of ice cream did

I laughed out loud. The vanity generation.

Or just go to Lake Louise or Morraine Lake. The colour comes from rock flour.

In America, people kill time at the beach. In Russia, time at the beach kills you.

This seems appropriate, as Instagram is also a toxic waste dump.

Think of it as a poison honey pot for Instagram "influencers", to thin the herd and improve the gene pool.

Looks like there are some romantic AirBnB get-aways available near Love Canal:

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Niagara--New-York--United-States/ho...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

Also quite a few in Chernobyl with glowing reviews:

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Chernobyl--Kyivs'ka-oblast--Ukraine...

In both cases, it's really not dangerous to merely be there for a visit. Chernobyl's other reactors continued to operate until 2000, for example.

Don't go into the reactor sarcophagus, don't eat the soil at Love Canal, and you'll be fine for a romantic weekend.

Chernobyl is not dangerous.

Also, it's a very interesting place to visit. Can recommend; been there in 2017.

More allegory than the Bible