This article contains references to a Buzzfeed video. Please watch this video before proceeding.
In today’s society, social media is basically our lives, especially Instagram. We’ve all heard before that Instagram is deceiving, it’s not someone’s real life. But yet we all get so obsessive. I won’t deny that I am in a relationship with my Instagram, and I so carefully calculate everything about it. But people get even more into it than I do, over analyzing it so much to the precise time they should post a picture for more likes.
Instagram as a job is the most recent craze. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be paid to travel, eat and try cool things just to take an artsy picture and then get paid to do so. Sounds like the dream. But is this lifestyle just a slow slope to a virtual world, in which nothing is actually real?
You can see from this BuzzFeed video how an employee, Steven, attempts to become Instagram famous, or Instafamous, which he even mentions in the beginning is a plan to get more followers. He sets out to achieve this goal by completing a number of challenges that should give him some buzz online. And it’s proven, that at the start of the week he had 58,900 followers and by the end had an astounding 61,500 followers, growing by 2,600 in a matter of a week. That’s kind of mind-blowing. But is this fame worth it? Is he so focused on his follower count and likes that he forgets to live?
He says in the video that he was going places just to take Instagram pictures, he even went and ate an ice cream cone for a cool picture, despite being lactose intolerant.
But followers aren’t real, likes aren’t real, none of these people actually know you and like you. They’re not your friends, they know nothing about you. Why do we feel a need for their validation?
A perfect example of how I would say most people in our generation view Instagram can be seen in the beginning of the video.
“Don’t try too hard, cause everyone knows it,” Kwesi said. “When you’re trying too hard. Yeah, on that note-” “Oh, that’s deep- I just spent a half hour posting this photo,” Steven responded.
It’s almost funny at how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s true. We all do it. But why are we trying so hard to impress people we don’t even know, and sometimes might not even like?
But maybe being so Instagram-obsessed isn’t such a bad thing, maybe we can learn something about ourselves we never knew. Maybe Instagram is the new form of self-help and personal growth, our generation’s version of meditation.
I mean, think about it, Instagram sometimes puts us out of our comfort zone, as it did to Steven in the video. It pushes us to try new things, and maybe find something we never knew we liked before. It allows us to create a board of self-expression and allows us to validate who we are. Posting photos that we like, we formalize who we are, and seeing it all together and admiring it allows us to like and appreciate who we are and what we do.
“The cool thing about trying Instagram, is that it also forces you to go out and do cool new things,” said Steven.
He also said that he likes his Instagram now, as he feels it’s a better representation of himself.
Though I think this all could be true, that Instagram is fake and shouldn’t control our lives, I do also think this can be a new form of self-expression and growth. The important thing is to just remember that we should enjoy and have fun with Instagram, but not let it be the end all be all.
“It took me obsessing about numbers to realize that’s it’s not all about the numbers.” Steven said.
A like is just a click of a screen or a mouse, don’t let that define you. Have fun with Instagram because you like it, take pictures and try new things because you want to, post photos because you like them and they speak to you- that’s the key to use Instagram as a tool for self-growth rather than self-destruction.
Photo credits: wired.com