The culture of flexing high salaries, elite tech jobs and dramatic AI fears on social media platform X is under scrutiny after a viral post called out what many now believe is a growing trend of “engagement farming”.
Techies call out engagement farming
It began with a post by X user Ojas Sharma, who crafted a seemingly believable story about a senior from his college working at Google with an Rs 89 LPA package and relying on AI for coding. The post built up to a dramatic conclusion that “we are officially cooked”. But the twist came immediately after.
Sharma revealed that the entire story was fabricated. He further said that much of the content circulating on social media, especially around tech salaries and AI anxiety, is often exaggerated or completely made up just to grab attention and drive engagement. He also said that many people have caught this trick and are trying to fool users.
The post quickly went viral, resonating with users who have long suspected that “insider” tech stories are not always authentic.
Joining the conversation, Neha Sharma, a tech professional at Amazon, echoed the sentiment by recreating a similar viral-style anecdote. In her version, she spoke of a fictional acquaintance earning Rs 5 crore at Amazon and using AI for coding, before revealing that her story too was entirely made up.
She pointed out that such templates are frequently reused online, often dragging companies like Amazon into exaggerated or misleading narratives purely to spark debate and rack up impressions. She also urged social media users not to buy every narrative that they come across in social media.
The internet responded with humour and sarcasm, taking the trend to absurd extremes. One user joked about knowing someone on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission who was supposedly using AI to fly a spacecraft, a clear parody of the original posts.