Let’s be honest: a good portion of our day is spent on our phones. Maybe you use it for educational purposes, or maybe you are like me and use it (mostly) for social media. If you ARE like me, then there’s also a big chance you are addicted to one particular app. My weakness? Instagram.
I could spend hours on Instagram, scrolling through my friends’ pictures, scrolling through random pictures on the “Explore” page, and, of course, posting pictures. If you use Instagram as much as I do, then you can agree with me that posting a picture is not just three taps of your thumb. There is a “posting process,” and with each part of the process comes a different thought.
Here are five thoughts you probably have while posting an Instagram picture.
1. Friends or no Friends?
The first step: is your next picture a selfie or a group picture? Or maybe your next picture will be food or scenery. The list goes on and on, but one thing is for certain: you can’t please everyone in that group picture, so you do you!
2. Filter Confusion
So you chose a picture *cue the sigh of relief,* but now comes the confusion: filter. It would be simple if there was just “black & white, “sepia,” and “colour,” but that would be too easy. So instead, you have to scroll through the many filters, deciding which one makes you look the best. With this task comes great confusion: this one make my face orange; this one looks like I took the picture on a Nokia phone; does anyone actually know what Valencia means?
3. Editing Nightmare
You finally landed on the perfect filter (or maybe you are like me and just give up). Now comes the true nightmare: the editing. Looking back, choosing a filter seems like a breeze! This part of the process offers you functions like “saturation” and “sharpness” and “brightness.” With each tap of your thumb, you are given the opportunity to adjust such features on the picture.
The true problem: I don’t really know how any of them affect my picture. I make the picture a bit brighter, but then I make the contrast darker; I make the image more sharp but then make the background fade. It’s all one big contradiction! So we’re all stuck just increasing and decreasing various features, hoping the picture turns out okay.
4. Caption…a.k.a. THE WORST PART
So the picture is filtered, edited and now you arrive at the final step. You tag a friend, you add a location, and you click on the “Caption” box. And then you freeze.
The space bar flashes at you, waiting for you type something, ANYTHING. But nothing comes to mind. You begin to panic: do you try to make a joke? Everyone else on your “Explore” page seemed to have punny captions, except you’re stuck staring at the empty box.
Maybe you should just put an emoji. You can never go wrong with a flower or the happy moon.
So after all that planning and preparing, you end up spending the most time trying to think of a caption that perfectly summarizes that sunset, or your selfie, or why your friend is falling in a picture.
5. PIS: Post Instagram Stress
The final step has been completed. You figured out a caption (finally) and clicked “Done.” The app brings you back to the homepage and you see your photo at the top of the feed. Now, you wait for that first like to reassure you that “Yes, it was the perfect time to post, people will see it.”
Sounds like a silly reassurance: you don’t necessarily NEED someone liking the picture to feel secure. However, we’ve been there, we’ve felt that stress and we’ve felt that inner relief when “1 like” appears under the image.
So you can relax Instagramers: someone out there understands the (sometimes complicated) process of posting an Instagram. So remember: I’d always send a LIKE your way!