I hate Instagram. I hate what it promotes and I hate the culture surrounding it. No one feels better about themselves on Instagram, unless you’re conventionally beautiful and great at photoshop and have tens of thousands of online strangers kissing your ass. Suicide rates have increased dramatically for girls in recent years, and the reason behind it is no mystery. Whenever you open the Instagram app, you see the celebrities you follow, being rich and sexy and living lives better than yours. You see the pretty girls at your school that you’re so jealous of (that you only follow in hopes they’ll follow back so you can gain some popularity cred). You see gorgeous and talented makeup artists doing things to their face you had never worried about before with $50 products you now feel obligated to buy. Maybe they’re also promoting an expensive corset that will crush your ribs and intestines but promises to make you look a little more like Kylie Jenner.
Why do we follow these people? We are deliberately making ourselves feel bad by constantly exposing ourselves to fakeness and materialism. Girls now feel more pressure than ever to have perfect brows and contour, because that’s what is shown to us on a daily basis. There’s an incredible push for us to get butt and breast implants and lip fillers. Instagram “baddies” make society believe that’s how girls are supposed to look to be beautiful and valuable. Instagram teaches us that our value is based on the likes we get, which is based on how hot we look in our photos. This is an enormous step backwards for women – we have protested for decades, even centuries, to fight for women to be seen as more than objects to look at and have sex with. Women struggle daily to be treated like human beings instead of dolls. It’s nothing short of sick and disgusting that an internet platform is doing so much to move women backwards. I feel sorry for people who post selfies and promote products to make an income; How tragic it is to have your career based on the appearance of your physical body rather than your skills or work ethic.
I spent years on Instagram – and years depressed and suicidal, largely because of it. I spent most of my time hating myself for not having clear enough skin or good enough makeup or big enough boobs or a small enough waist or long enough legs.. When Instagram provides the media you consume, you are made to believe that your value is based on how much attention you get and how well you adhere to arbitrary physical standards. I reluctantly deleted the app a few months back after being sick of staring at people I believed were better than me all day and it was the most freeing thing I’ve ever done. It was like a mental health miracle – my mood was boosted and my stress alleviated. By making the decision to not participate in a platform that seeks to profit off of my feelings of inadequacy I took control of my self-esteem. I made the conscious choice to not be involved in what was hurting me. It’s not as easy as it sounds to pull away from something that everybody is using – it’s easy to feel left out, but I promise that you won’t be missing out on anything besides cripplingly low self-esteem and wasted time.
Think about how Instagram makes you feel. I doubt any of the “baddies” you follow make you happy when you open the app, so unfollow them. Take control of your self-esteem and get rid of the app. Refuse to be a part of a culture that seeks to harm and pressure you. If there’s more bad than good, just delete it! You don’t deserve to be subjected to that! No one is forcing you to look at things that make you unhappy. If there’s enough positivity on Instagram to make you want to keep it, then do so. Only follow accounts that make you feel better. Follow people that post cute cats and inspiring quotes, not hot photoshopped women that make you feel inadequate. Take the power back and take charge of what you invite into your life.