It’s a common occurrence. Putting on a great outfit for a night out, then deciding to take a picture and upload it to Instagram. Really liking the picture and feeling good about it, but upon logging back into the app twenty minutes later, there is a discovery that the picture has only gotten five ‘likes’. This can be a major confidence blow, especially seeing other friends’ photos in the feed getting more than 100 likes. This whole cycle can lead to anxiety and self-esteem issues in college students.
When asked if Instagram has ever affected her self-esteem in a negative way, junior Natalie Nudera says “sometimes when I post the same picture as my best friend does and she gets more likes than I do, it kind of makes me feel like my picture wasn’t good enough so then I’ll delete it. Or if I post a selfie and only girls like it, it makes me feel like no guys think I’m good enough.”
Junior Mckenzie Blomquist also shares her own Insta-anxieties. “What bothers me about social media is being excluded from a photo or seeing that all of your friends are hanging out together and post a picture when you weren’t invited.”
It’s clear that Instagram can do more harm to self-image than the good that college women think that it’s supposed to. Our generation has been labeled as the instant gratification generation where it has been reinforced that the second we post a photo, a ton of likes will come in immediately, thus making us feel better about ourselves. But how long does that good feeling really last? Getting a “like” on a photo is a quick rush, and since that rush only lasts for a few seconds, we begin to crave that feeling of self-worth every single time we post, and it can cause anxiety or feelings of low self-esteem and stress if a picture doesn’t get enough likes.
I personally experienced some Insta-anxiety this winter break on a family vacation. The previous picture I had posted had gotten over 100 likes, so I was feeling pretty good about posting one after. After an hour I logged back onto the app and experienced a panic unlike any other when I saw that only 27 people had liked my photo. Sensing my anxiety about the photo, my mom told me “if you liked that picture enough to post it, what else matters?” That stuck with me. Ever since that moment, when I post a picture onto Instagram, I have to tell myself this is a picture I like and this is a picture that I want my friends to see, and nothing else matters.
There’s also the issue of never feeling good enough on Instagram because of all of the celebrities that get 1,000 plus likes on their photos. But for some reason, this has made me feel slightly better. No matter who you are, there will always be someone who gets more likes than you, so it takes some of the pressure off for me. I also think to myself “will we even care about having a decent amount of likes on an Instagram picture when we are 80?” Even though our generation is social media obsessed, I really couldn’t picture a bunch of old ladies still using the app. Eventually, we will all stop using the app, which when you think in a more rational level, is something that is easily disposable. I have to tell myself all the time it’s just an app. When you take a look around you at things in the real world, like a busy airport or a sunny beach, the realization comes that Instagram isn’t real life. It’s like a virtual bubble, not somewhere to live and be hooked on.
Another thing to remember is that Instagram really just shows highlights of a person’s life. For example, when I posted vacation pictures of myself in Maui, it really was just edited, highlighted moments. My friends didn’t know that I was annoyed at my mom, or that I was stressed about going back to school and starting to get homesick. They just saw my perfectly-filtered photos. Friends aren’t going to post a photo of them with tears running down their cheeks after a fight with their mom, or a hashtag #IHaveMono, or posting a picture of a dirty apartment-mess after a party with the caption “made some decisions that I really regret last night”. People only post photos to make their life seem great, even though a lot of the time things really, truly aren’t.
I’m not perfect, and nobody is perfect. This year, I want to stress less about social media, especially Instagram. I want to curb my Insta-anxiety and live in the moment now as it unfolds, because really, that is all that should matter to us.