by Lauren Brown \\ Editor
‘This is the swimsuit I want’
‘Her figure is to die for.’
‘Ohh I want to be where they are’
• All three of us Sat there, scrolling scrolling scrolling. With the same enthralled concentration and determination to reach the end of the feed.
Your friends living it up in Vegas, those reality TV stars with their new swimwear ranges, the Americans you met traveling. Holiday photos, mirror selfies, posh restaurants in London and Bottomless Brunch shots plastered top to bottom.
Despite being a culprit of posting the above in recent weeks, you’re still sat at home wishing you had more of a purpose.
Instagram, it’s your fault that 24 year old Lucy in London has a public account with 79.8k followers, allowing Timid Tamara all the way from Dorset with her mere 230 followers to up her game. What Tamara doesn’t know is that Lucy has very likely bought her Instagram likes and followers from a site similar to Nitreo and is making out that she is much more popular than she is. Lucy often promotes the surgical procedures she has done, tags the brands who send her free clothes, and thanks the hotel for the ‘pleasurable (free) stay.’
Tamara aspires to be like Lucy. Her posts gradually become more raunchy, her selfies become more regular, and then what happens? Obsession happens. She finds herself venturing out more.
Except, she doesn’t really enjoy the moments because she’s too concerned about whether her lunch is photogenic and how many likes it will get. And it’s not going to get any better. It will keep getting worse, until there is no individuality, until we’re all clones of each other. After all, you wanted to be like her didn’t you Tamara?
Now enough drivel about these fictional characters…
Instagram evokes a constant sense of unfulfillment and the continuous desire for MORE. It’s like the feeling you get when you’re window shopping with not a penny to spare, only 100 times worse. With this being said, this is not the case for everyone. There are some people who can use platforms like Instagram as a source of inspiration. A quick instagram direct message to someone who they admire, like a couple of posts and work on improving their own life. But there are others like Tamara who can’t help but compare themselves to others online. This can become an unhealthy obsession.
Now with these ‘Instafamous’ bloggers, it’s near enough every bloody post on that explore feed, we see something we want. Appearance, possessions, location, they all trigger the ‘I would rather be there’ syndrome. Some of them buy Instagram likes to get instafamous but it’s a strategy that works for many, and even some businesses utilize it too in their marketing.
One day you want to look like ‘blu33y3z’ because she’s smashed that angle in her photo, another it’s ‘model234′, because she had a spinach leaf for dinner, knowing full well this selfie would be posted the following morning, acquiring 6200 likes. Or the reality TV couple in their matching active wear, making you think twice about reaching for the choccy. The only way you could replicate this kind of likes figures is to use a bot for instagram, which could be a useful option.
And you can’t put them to the back of your mind because if you’ve stalked them even once, they always appear in that bloody explore section, teasing you.
Instagram is smart like that. These people flaunt their beauty, their luxurious lifestyle, their days of doing sweet f** all but posing in their free clothes and liquid lunching.
Instagram is nothing but a constant reminder of the monotony and mediocrity in our lives. Transformation Tuesdays, Woman Crush Wednesdays, more ‘bloggers’ publicising their profiles and the rapidly increasing use of hash tags, we can find just about anything on Instagram: inspirational, motivational, more like disheartening and damn right daunting.
I know we all know deep down that this isn’t reality but we still find it difficult not to envy what we see. Thanks to filters, editing apps and flattering angles, Instagram often portrays someone who couldn’t be more different to what they’re actually like.
And I guess I’m being slightly hypocritical in the sense that I am an AVID Instagrammer. I use it to promote my blog, use all the hashtags under the sun, and god did the saturation filter come in handy when I was on my holiday. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t beat yourself up too much.
It’s a false and inaccurate representation. It’s the best parts, the parts people only want to share. The parts you want your friends to see. Maybe you’re trying to catch that special guy/gal’s attention, but don’t forget to smile. We just need a grip on reality. We need to remember that life isn’t a competition. Do what makes you happy. Do what you like not what you think other people will ‘Like’.
For a while now I’ve thought about how Instagram can bring so much negativity, self hate and insecurity into someone’s life, especially those who are young and impressionable.
For a normal 23 girl (debatable), with an average job, a good social life and strong ambitions, social media can really undermine our values, our enjoyment and sadly our positive outlook. Someone’s always doing something better and in turn, we feel insignificant. Our holiday was automatically rubbish because we’re not and can’t afford to stay in the four seasons…
When did Social Media become so backward? If I think back to when we were in our teens, I don’t remember us being like this. In school, did we used to sit there on the field, mindlessly scrolling, commenting and judging? Or did we actually talk to each other?
