The first time I created an Instagram was the summer before my freshman year of high school. My middle school days were spent behind Tumblr and Facebook and Instagram wasn't as popular as it is now in the year 2019. The only reason why I ever created one was to explore One Direction's daily lives, but the intention was never to capture and highlight every moment of my daily life.
As I scroll through my Instagram while writing this; I am a public Instagram profile and I scream to the Internet world what places I have visited, what things I have accomplished, what college I attend, who my crew and group of closets friends are, what my wardrobe looks like, even what my favorite drink is. My Instagram profile is my reflection, I have told myself before. But why did it take one out of at least fifty pictures to make it to this so-called reflection profile? And why am I fake smiling in most of them? If we are displayed as this satisfied with our lives, why are we constantly comparing our profiles to someone else's, who seems to be living things we aren't.
Instagram isn't the reflection of our lives, it is a shadow over it.
I have never questioned the need of telling my followers what I had for lunch, and why should I care what they ate today too. Since when are we so out of entertainment that people need to be constantly asking us questions and the need for exposing the answers to the public. When going to a concert, why are we videotaping a whole performance to be able to post it, when the only reason we attended that concert was to enjoy it in real life so we wouldn't have to watch it from a screen in the first place. Who the hell invented filters? And why are they only a curtain over our imperfections? When will I be this skinny or perhaps this thick, even the fear of missing out? What the hell is really a hashtag, and why am I staring at it with a blank facial expression when it's supposed to reflect how I really feel.
Instagram is nothing but fakeness and a distortion of reality, which we are in fact currently missing out on.
Growing up I wasn't aware of how the older generations were living, and I didn't care. In today's society we have the younger generations that at such a young age are discovering stages of life that shouldn't be discovered, and moments that are now pressured to accomplish. If my self-esteem was in danger when I reached the age of twelve among the better-looking girls in my class, I wonder how the self-esteem of a twelve-year-old in 2019 is now in danger among Instagram models where ten filters have been added and the perfect angles were captured, spiced with a caption they cannot relate to at the age of twelve. Why are kids understanding adult jokes? Who the h*** is Kylie Jenner and why is she making millions after society double taps her distortion of reality, making this reality more of distortion to the younger generations.
The definition of Instaholic is the need to post.
There wouldn't be an Instagram without any posts. Our society is the definition of Instaholics. Mental Health is already at risk, and depression already plays a big role in today's society. Instagram is full of unrealistic exceptions, so much for being the generation of leaving a legacy.
Why is Instagram making reality so miserable?
Photography was meant to capture the best moments. It began with wedding pictures hung over the walls. Baby pictures that held the treasure of memories that couldn't be recalled. Family photos that became a living memory of the ones that left us. graduation pictures that would capture accomplishments. Photographs would make us happy, so why are there 600 mirror selfies that have filled up my phone storage that make me quite unhappy. And why are grandma's hanging up their granddaughter's pictures that have been edited and 20 filters have been applied? Why the hell are mirror selfies even a thing, why are these the ones that will be hung after our funeral? These only reflect the distortion of reality, where reality is being forgotten, and a shadow of it has taken over. This is the generation of Instaholics.
