If you haven’t hopped on the Instagram bandwagon yet, then you’re not the only one—you’re just not part of the 400 million active users. The photo-sharing social media app has grown tremendously in popularity since its start in 2010. Lately though, it seems like some people have become disenchanted with the app, and the question arises: Are we taking the idea of “picture perfect” too far?
I first started thinking about this question due to the recent news story of “Instagram model,” Essena O’Neill. If you have not heard about Essena, she’s an instagram model from Australia who recently renounced many of her social media accounts. Before deleting her Instagram account, however, she went through and recaptioned many of her posts in order to debunk the “picture-perfect” photos. Recaptions included messages about being paid by companies to wear their clothes, forcing her younger sister to take a photo over and over again, and skipping meals in order to be happy with how she looked. You can check out all her incredibly honest recaptions on her web page. Click here to read about Stina Sanders, another model who changed her instagram game to more accurately represent real life.
How many of us have asked a friend to take a picture over and over again till everything is perfect, from the lighting, to the tilt of our head? How many of us have deleted an Insta pic because it got an embarrassingly low number of likes? How many of us see posts that instead of inspiring us, end up making us feel jealous or dissatisfied? According to Business Insider, the average Instagram user spends 21 minutes per day using the app. That’s almost 2 and a half hours per week, and about 128 hours per year. Obviously this is an area we users are significantly investing our time and energy in, so the question remains as to whether that is time and energy well spent. Is Instagram serving as a way to connect and interact with friends, or is it increasing the pressures and the superficial values of our culture?
Instagram can definitely perpetuate the notion that some people have this “picture-perfect” life and that happiness can only be achieved through an existence like that. But in conclusion, I do not think we need to give up on Instagram. Yes, some of the pictures are fake, filtered, and photoshopped, but like so many social media platforms, it is what we make it. If we use it genuinely and with positivity as a way to connect with friends, then Instagram can be a great thing. It is only if we use to convey false ideas about our lives or ourselves that we then are being dishonest with ourselves and with others. A photo is worth a thousand words and when we post or view an instagram we should use a critical eye to first consider what that picture is actually saying, and second to determine if it’s a message we actually want to buy into.
Please enjoy this cheesy but appropriate Taylor Swift gif.
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