Former Mackay Author Alexis Zahner Returns to Launch Book and Help Communities Break Free From Social Media Influence
In an age where endless scrolling has become the default rhythm of daily life, the line between personal identity and online influence grows thinner by the day. For many, the constant stream of reels, trends, advertisements and carefully curated lifestyles quietly reshapes the way they think, feel and choose. It is this creeping erosion of authentic selfhood that has drawn former Mackay local Alexis Zahner back to her hometown. Zahner, an author and social media researcher with a professional background in business psychology, marketing and media, is spending the next week in Mackay to deliver a simple but urgent message: social media is designed to influence, and understanding how it works is the first step toward reclaiming your own mind. Her visit will culminate in a free meet-and-greet and book launch on Friday 2 October at 5.30pm at the Mackay Surf Lifesaving Club, where she will discuss her debut book, “Real: Reconnecting to Yourself in a World of Likes and Lies,” and answer questions from the community. The event promises to be both a homecoming and a call to action. Zahner’s work speaks directly to the quiet anxiety many social media users feel but rarely name: the sense that their likes, dislikes, values, relationships and even life goals may not be entirely their own. As she puts it, the problem is not simply time wasted on a screen; it is the more fundamental question of whether we still know who we are when the feed disappears. With a blend of professional insight and personal experience, Zahner aims to help people of all ages understand how platforms capture attention, shape desire, and ultimately influence decisions in ways that often go unnoticed. The upcoming launch is being pitched not just as a book signing, but as a conversation about digital wellbeing and self-reclamation. For a region like Mackay, where community and connection have traditionally thrived in person, her return represents a meaningful opportunity to discuss how technology is transforming the way people relate to one another and to themselves.
Zahner’s connection to this subject is neither abstract nor academic in the detached sense. She spent the past 15 years working across business psychology, marketing and media, giving her a front-row seat to the mechanics of persuasion that fuel the digital economy. Her interest in social media influence first took root during her university studies at James Cook University in Townsville, where she began to examine the psychological underpinnings of why people behave, consume and identify themselves in online spaces. But it was her own journey as an avid social media user, travel blogger and influencer that brought the issue close to home. On the surface, her lifestyle appeared enviable: a life of movement, curated imagery and a growing online audience. Yet beneath the polished posts, Zahner began to notice something unsettling. The more she engaged with the platforms, the harder it became to distinguish her own preferences and intuitions from the content that appeared in her feed. Likes and follower counts began to feel less like metrics and more like validations, shaping which parts of her identity she chose to share and which she suppressed. Her work in marketing had already taught her how brands craft messages to trigger emotional responses and drive engagement. Now she was living the reality of those mechanisms from the inside. That experience eventually transformed her from an influencer into a critical voice on influence itself. Rather than abandoning social media entirely or prescribing a one-size-fits-all digital detox, Zahner began to explore practical strategies for reconnecting to oneself in a world saturated with algorithms and advertisements. Her debut book, “Real,” grows directly out of this journey, offering a framework for identifying how social media interferes with self-knowledge and for rebuilding a sense of authenticity that is not dependent on external validation. It is a message informed by research but grounded in the deeply personal struggle of trying to figure out what you actually want when everything around you is trying to tell you what to want.
The tipping point, Zahner says, came about three years ago, when she found herself staring at a feeling she could no longer ignore. “I couldn’t separate influence from my own personal decision making,” she says. “I couldn’t separate my own likes, dislikes, values, relationships from what I was being exposed to and being influenced by online.” It was a startling realization for someone who had spent years both studying and participating in the digital world. The distinction between what she genuinely loved and what she had been conditioned to love had blurred to the point of invisibility. “I found that I needed to take some time away from social media to recalibrate what was important to me and sort of reconnect and come back to myself.” That decision marked the beginning of a deeper inquiry into the psychological cost of living under constant digital influence. Zahner understands the language of existential crisis well. “I know what it feels like to live a life under the influence of social media and have that existential crisis of thinking to yourself, who am I? What do I like? What’s the kind of life I want to live? and struggling to separate myself from influence.” These are questions that many people, especially younger generations, are asking themselves with increasing frequency. But Zahner’s insight is that these feelings are not a personal failing. Social media is engineered to produce these effects: to keep users engaged, to shape their worldview, to manufacture desire, and to blur the boundary between personal choice and algorithmic suggestion. The book “Real” is both a reflection on that experience and a practical guide for anyone who has ever felt that their phone knows them better than they know themselves. It addresses the uncomfortable reality that many of the decisions people make online, from the products they buy to the causes they support to the aesthetics they admire, are influenced by techniques designed to bypass rational thought. Zahner’s message offers hope: by understanding how this influence operates, individuals can begin to disentangle themselves from it.
The mechanisms that make social media so compelling are not accidental. They are the result of sophisticated marketing strategies, behavioral psychology and algorithmic engineering designed to capture attention and hold it for as long as possible. Platforms employ endless feeds, variable reward schedules, notifications, personalised recommendations and viral loops to keep users engaged, often at the expense of their cognitive autonomy. Zahner’s background in business psychology and marketing gives her a unique ability to explain these strategies in accessible terms. She points out that every tap, like and pause is data that trains the algorithm to optimise content delivery, ensuring that users see more of what triggers an emotional response. Over time, this creates an echo chamber of content that reinforces certain beliefs, values and desires while starving others. The result is a subtle form of identity manipulation: people begin to adopt the tastes, priorities, and even personalities of the content they consume. The problem is compounded by the design of social media platforms, which are optimised for engagement rather than wellbeing. Infinite scrolling exploits the brain’s reward system, delivering small dopamine hits that keep users chasing more. This can shorten attention spans, increase anxiety, and create a persistent sense of dissatisfaction. The phrase “always wanting more” captures not just the material envy of seeing other people’s lives, but also a deeper restlessness: the sense that who you are is never quite enough. Zahner’s message is particularly relevant in a world where many people cannot remember what they wanted before they had a phone. She encourages individuals to “start expanding beyond what you see on the platform,” to “dare to indulge in the things that you’ve always been curious about or things you used to love,” and to “not be afraid to put the phone down to let yourself be curious and have fun.” These are not anti-technology sentiments; they are pro-autonomy ones. The goal is not to reject social media wholesale but to re-establish it as a tool rather than a master, to know when to step away, and to create space for genuine self-discovery outside the glow of the screen.
While Zahner’s message applies to people of all ages, she is especially passionate about reaching teenagers. Adolescence is a critical period for identity development, a time when the brain is still forming the neural pathways that will shape adult decision-making, self-concept and emotional regulation. It is also, not coincidentally, the demographic most immersed in social media. Zahner will share her message with Mackay high school students during her upcoming school talks, and she hopes to arm them with more than just warnings about screen time. “Teenagers are really easily influenced by social media. So it’s a really important age where we start educating them – not just on the mental health repercussions of things like social media and how it shortens their attention span, but how it actually influences who they become.” This distinction is crucial. Most public discussion about teen social media use focuses on anxiety, depression, bullying and distraction. While these are serious issues, Zahner argues that the deeper concern is the erosion of the self at a moment when the self is still being constructed. Teenagers are exploring their values, interests, social roles and personal aspirations. When those explorations are constantly mediated by algorithmic content, the line between authentic self-discovery and externally imposed preference becomes dangerously thin. The questions “Who am I outside of social media?” and “What do I actually want?” are difficult enough for adults to answer; for teenagers, they can feel impossible. Zahner’s school talks aim to give young people the language and the tools to ask those questions, to recognise when they are being influenced, and to resist the pressure to define themselves through likes, followers and trends. She also wants to relieve the guilt that many young people feel. “If you’re asking yourself these questions, it’s not your fault. Social media is actually geared to create this impact on you.” By shifting the focus from individual blame to systemic design, Zahner hopes to empower teenagers rather than shame them. The goal is not to make them fear technology, but to make them more thoughtful, intentional and curious about the role it plays in their lives.
As Zahner prepares to take the stage in Mackay, her advice remains practical and hopeful. She is not calling for a total abandonment of social media, nor does she pretend that digital life can be escaped altogether. Instead, she invites people to create a more honest relationship with their devices. “Don’t be afraid to put the phone down to let yourself be curious and have fun,” she says. “Dare to indulge in the things that you’ve always been curious about or things you used to love.” The book launch at the Mackay Surf Lifesaving Club on Friday 2 October at 5.30pm is an opportunity for the local community to hear her story, ask questions and begin their own process of recalibration. The event is free, and the conversation is expected to be especially valuable for parents, educators, young people and anyone who has ever felt that their digital life is writing their personality without their permission. Zahner’s return to Mackay is a homecoming in more than just geography. It is a chance to bring a global conversation about digital wellbeing back to the local setting, where face-to-face connection still matters. She knows that social media can be a useful tool: for staying in touch, for creativity, for community, for business. But she also knows the cost of letting it operate unchecked. Real, her debut book, is an invitation to step back, to question, to reconnect and to remember that identity is not a profile picture, a follower count, or a perfectly edited reel. It is something deeper, something that can only be found when the phone is down and the mind is free. The Mackay community will welcome home one of its own with a message that could not be more timely: in a world of likes and lies, the most radical act is to be real. For those interested in attending the launch, the details are simple: 5.30pm, Friday 2 October, at the Mackay Surf Lifesaving Club. Admission is free, and all are invited to listen, ask questions and perhaps begin the work of discovering who they are beyond the feed.