See that woman above, having a deep and meaningful moment with an inflatable flamingo?

She’s just one of the many influencers who have recently flocked to Siberia to a man-made lake nicknamed the “Novosibirsk Maldives” because of its vibrant blue colour.

Here’s the thing, though – it gets that vibrant colour because of the metal oxides dumped in it from a nearby coal plant.

So while this isn’t as dangerous as the influencer pilgrimage to Chernobyl, it’s still pretty darn idiotic.

Business Insider breaks it down:

The Siberian Generating Co., the firm that runs the coal plant that built the artificial lake, issued a warning on the Russian social-media platform VKontakte last month. According to a translation of the post, which described the lake as an “ash dump,” the water is not poisonous, but it is also not suitable for swimming.

Contact with the water could cause an allergic reaction, and the muddy bottom of the lake could make it difficult to get out.

The location has become so popular on social media that it has its own Instagram account.

While this account shows people mostly standing near the lake rather than in it, outside visitors to the lake don’t seem to care about the warnings.

A translation of a caption under an Instagram photo showing a man riding a unicorn pool float with his feet in the water said, “It’s not dangerous to swim there. The next day, my legs turned slightly red and itched for about two days.”

Another caption under an image of two people on paddle boards translated to: “By the way – the last chemical analysis of the water showed that it is not so dangerous.”

Great. More examples of unqualified morons on the internet giving out bad advice. Let’s get a look at some of the pictures that were worth risking an allergic reaction over, shall we?

“Felt cute, might delete later”…

This person has either been swimming, or someone took the time to hose her down before taking this picture:

Like, so zen. Chakras aligned. #Namaste.

Because nothing says #spiritual like a staged photo taken by a pro photographer, amirite?

This resembles a 90s perfume ad:

Maybe this is a self-correcting problem. If these people keep jetting off to take selfies in places that could kill them, they might be extinct in a few years time.

Until then, please stop.

[source:businessinsider]