I made the decision to take a break, if not completely stop using Instagram for good; I recently deactivated my account because I want to improve my mental health and increase my self-confidence. Instagram has become an unintentional competition between ourselves and our psyches, and it is undoubtedly an unhealthy competition.
Instagram originated on the idea of sharing beautiful photos of our daily lives or sharing photography content of what each of us personally finds interesting; slowly, it has evolved into the majority of us sharing highlights of our lives to make ourselves look and feel better. We are focused on having an Instagram theme (matching our photos based on color or content) to make our profiles stand out among other users, especially our peers’ accounts. What has more of a negative impact on our psyches is the worry of getting a certain number of likes per photo. The concept of receiving likes has turned into a source of validation, except only provides ephemeral validation and satisfaction. Whenever we receive a like on a photo, that chat bubble notification, with the heart in the middle of it, simply increases the chemical in our brains that brings us temporary happiness: dopamine. It is natural for us, as living beings, to gradually become obsessed with dopamine; therefore, our generation has become addicted to receiving likes, ergo, addicted to Instagram and social media rankings.
We have simultaneously become advocates for “If you didn’t Instagram it, did it really happen?” This idea has become detrimental to our goal of living in the moment and enjoying the time we have with our friends; and, it has ultimately confused us on what quality communication is. We are so worried about capturing a moment on camera that we forget to live in the moment itself. We have become unintentionally addicted to looking at how other people live their lives and comparing it to how we live ours, all of this while we are sitting on a couch, on the train, in the waiting room, or even in the same room as those whose lives to what we are comparing our own.
Unfortunately, as mentioned before, we have masked the idea of receiving likes as a source of validation: “This person liked my photo, this person must really like me” or “This person didn’t like my photo, they must not like me,” or “This photo didn’t get as many likes, there must be something wrong with it.” We interpret a photo not getting our “average” number of likes as a sign that we aren’t good enough or people have changed their minds about what they think of us.
There are more moments in life that aren’t as positive, so we seek a medium through which we can be “#relatable”. So, we created “Finstas” – Fake Instagrams – to post about random, unfiltered, candid moments that we wouldn’t “dare” to post on our “Rinstas” – Real Instagrams. In other words, our main account (Rinsta) is the account through which we share our life’s Roses and our Finsta is the account through which we share our life’s Thorns.
Yes, technology and social media inventions are inevitable in the 21st Century; however, the way we use social media should not have such a negative impact on our mental health nor should it distort how we define quality communication. This is why I decided to deactivate my Instagram profile and remain logged on to the Her Campus account. I even deleted my Finsta account prior to my freshman year of college. Over the past semester, I contemplated deleting my main Instagram account #mightdeletelater; and, I am glad that I finally did. It started to consume my time, and I never felt better about myself after mindlessly scrolling than I did before the scrolling and tapping session. Although I still the app on my phone, the day I decide to spend an hour on my phone scrolling and mindlessly tapping my iPhone screen on photos of my friends and people who I barely know is unknown. My primary use of Instagram is for Her Campus St. Law U; and, should I get into photography, I would proudly create a new account, but don’t see myself going back to the negative social competition that comes with my personal Instagram anytime soon.