Rishabh Singh Sambyal, an Indian Army officer from Samba, Jammu & Kashmir, has become an internet sensation and youth icon. He spent three years as Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the President of India before hanging up his boots after twelve years of service.

He first caught public attention at the 2021 Republic Day Parade, when, as a Captain, he led the Jat Regiment contingent to the Best Marching Contingent Trophy. But it was his photographs standing beside the President that went viral—people wanted to know more about the man in the pictures.

Physical attractiveness triggers the "halo effect," a psychological bias where good looks get linked to positive traits like intelligence, kindness, and trustworthiness. Rishabh seems to be a textbook case. He rose to fame without saying a word—just by standing next to the President—which underscores a larger point: social media algorithms aren't neutral. They're built on human psychology.

Soon after retiring, he sat down with India's top podcaster, Raj Shamani.  Now bearded, the podcast shed some of the mystery around him, letting people connect with the man behind the uniform. The ADC role is demanding, and many have performed it well without any fanfare. But with Rishabh Sambyal, people fixated on his looks —can understand his loneliness, the marriage he put off, the ordinary life he sacrificed for a high-visibility, high-pressure job. 

Social media is a strange kind of powerful—it can make you a household name overnight, and there's little logic to it beyond the fact that it tends to happen to good-looking men. 

In this "Hook Era," governed by the "3-second rule," the human brain processes images roughly 60,000 times faster than text. Bad news for a print journalist like me.

Sambyal isn't the first to experience this. Jeremy Meeks became globally known as the "hot felon" after his 2014 mugshot, taken by the Stockton Police Department, went viral—sparking a debate between those charmed by his looks and those who felt a criminal shouldn't be romanticized. Or take Arshad Khan, the Pakistani "chaiwala," an 18-year-old tea vendor in Islamabad whose striking blue eyes, captured candidly by a photographer in 2016, captivated the internet.

In each case, a single visual triggers a cascade of shares; the algorithm spots its viral potential and amplifies it exponentially.

Looks may be deceiving, but in the virtual world of social media, that hardly matters—and that virtual world quietly shapes real attitudes and real psychology. All the best to Rishabh. I know reality isn't nearly as exciting.