Main Character Energy as an immigrant persona

[RoseBakery]

I've lived in a European city that attracts a lot of immigrants with serious Main Character Energy - they move here and immediately start living according to script they've written where they play the principal role for an (invisible to locals) audience that is back home in NYC or Dublin or whatever. People who have lived here for a long time get used as information sources to enrich the script. Does anyone else relate to this?

Can you explain a bit more?

Like this; unbelievably annoying, and I find it exploitative and manipulative. How is anyone supposed to build a genuine relationship with someone who will clearly just use them for click-fodder?

But that’s for an online audience of friends/family/strangers in other places— it can hardly affect the people in someone’s new community unless they follow her on Fb.

You mean their day to day life is conducted to generate anecdotes?

Try again. I mean, everyone treats themselves as their own main character — who else would it be?

It does affect people in the community being described; a) because you want to feel that relationships you build with anyone are genuine, not performative, and b) your community is getting presented to the outside world in a superficial way that doesn't stem from any great understanding, sympathy, or commitment - and that can be damaging for all sorts of reasons.

Then don’t befriend the person, and/or don’t follow them on SM? No one can control the version of their community/city/country someone else puts out there, however inaccurate they think it is. People misunderstand and monetise places all the time. It’s irritating, but you just don’t get involved. Or correct them.

Well quite, but @RoseBakery was asking whether any of us could relate to it, and the answer was 'yes, I can'.

Yes, thanks, you definitely get it!

More for an audience that may or may not exist (perhaps it only exists as a figment of the person's imagination). And they gloss over the fact that real people have their own lives and feelings and aren't there to play a bit part.

Isn’t that just life in general nowadays? So many people are performing to social media audience, everywhere you go.

Possibly, though there is a sort of "Emily in Paris" persona about that is particularly irritating.