A content creator is going viral on TikTok after accusing a popular dating advice expert of making up fictitious dates for likes and views.
Pat (@nahitsjustpat) didn’t call out any specific content creator in his video. But that didn’t stop him from mincing words when it came to sharing how he felt about them.
“There’s a TikToker that is so obviously lying to y’all about their fictional dating life,” Pat wrote in the accompanying text overlay. As of Tuesday, his video had amassed 2.6 million views.
‘These aren’t real dating stories‘
In his video, Pat said that one popular content creator is “so obviously lying” about their dating life.
“It’s kind of crazy that you cannot see what’s happening,” he said of viewers who watch their content. “They’re a troll.”
Pat asserted that this mysterious content creators’ “get ready with me” videos are “not real.”
“The dates aren’t real. The people aren’t real,” he said. “Can y’all not catch the way they are telling stories?”
Pat said that it’s OK for content creators to embellish about their dates—especially if most of their following comes from dating-related content. Still, he questioned why viewers couldn’t see through the ruse.
“These aren’t real dating stories,” he added. “These things never happened. It’s just content.”
Who is the TikToker?
In a follow-up video, Pat ruled out one content creator: Winnie Parker, an Atlanta-based socialite who frequently posts dating content.
“I fully believe her dating stories,” Pat said. But otherwise, he refused to say who his video was about.
That didn’t stop viewers from offering guesses, of course. Two of the top named culprits were Molly Rutter and Danielle Walter.
Rutter is a popular content creator with a following close to 174,000. And aside from a few vlogs, her page primarily focuses on modern-day dating, from chronicling her first dates to sharing her best cringe-worthy moments.
She landed in hot water, however, after posting a now-deleted video that concluded with the influencer looking bruised or beaten, according to Screenshot Media. “This was the scariest date of my life,” Rutter apparently told viewers. But in an update, Rutter shared that she was OK and that the video was a marketing play for a haunted house. While Rutter has since apologized, her fake storytime drew ire from some of her fans. And it did prompt some viewers to question whether she lies about other aspects of her dating life—so there’s so far no evidence that this is true.
Walter, meanwhile, is another content creator who posts about their dating life frequently. In her bio, in fact, she’s dubbed herself the “brunette Carrie Bradshaw of the Bay Area.” One recent video, which has more than 375,000 views, shows Walter getting ready for her eleventh first date of the year. In another post, she shared that she had recently broken up with someone she was seeing—whom she nicknamed “Singer Man.”
But even in this clip, viewers expressed skepticism toward Walter’s content.
“I’m starting to think this is all just for content and not for finding someone,” one user wrote.
To be sure, Pat said that his original video was directed at a single content creator. But after seeing some of the names viewers offered as guesses, he said that multiple creators are guilty of lying about their dating lives.
Dating content takes over social media
According to Today.com, a number of content creators are taking to social media to share updates about their love lives. But if the end goal is to find a loving partner, posting this content might not be the way to go.
To demonstrate this, they interviewed a content creator named Emily Parris, who said she gained 35,000 followers by sharing dating content. In the end, though, Parris deleted all of her dating videos because she realized she was allowing commenters to “impact the way I saw guys.” She noted, too, that she was able to find a fulfilling relationship only after she stopped posting dating content.
Dating content is still popular on TikTok especially. The hashtag alone has more than 65 million views on TikTok, according to Today.com.
In an interview with the outlet, though, a dating expert warned that posting about dates can get in the way of finding love.
“If you expect me to go home with you or build with you and I find out you’re recording the date, I can’t trust anything that comes from your mouth, or anything you do at that point,” said Janika Veasley, a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Viewers who watched Pat’s initial TikTok agreed.
@nahitsjustpat #dateupdate #datinginyour30s #datingchronicles ♬ original sound – It’s Just Pat
“It gets boring after a while,” one woman said.
“People don’t have discernment,” another added.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Pat, Rutter, and Walter via TikTok comment.
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