I've always been a fairly confident person. I know my style. I know what I like and what I dislike, and I know that a Coke Zero can always pick me up when I'm feeling down.
Recently, however, I've begun to feel a little insecure. Not because I get sad when I think about how close swimsuit season is, not because a boy made a "joke" about my appearance, rather, I've been feeling a little under the weather because I base my self-worth on Instagram likes.
That's right, folks, I judge to see whether or not I am good enough based on how many "likes" a picture of mine gets. I judge myself when a picture doesn't get at least X number of likes in X amount of time, and I judge myself when my "Instagram ratio" is off and my picture has been up for more minutes than I have likes. This insecurity, however, is not rare. It's not some new obsession sweeping the nation—it's alive and well in me and you.
How many times have we scrolled through our feed and asked our friends, "Did you see how many likes she got on her Instagram?" or "Hey I just posted a picture. Will you go like it?" I'm also pretty sure that we can rattle off the statistics of our feed without even thinking twice: the most likes I've gotten on a picture is 257, and I have exactly 801 followers.
It doesn't stop there. We constantly ask our peers if our captions are witty enough or if our awkwardly posed "candid laughing picture" is good enough to post. And further, we justify the amounts of likes we get based on the classic followers comparison. "Yeah, I only got 154 likes, but I only have 803 followers, and she has 974, so it's all relative."
I haven't even mentioned the "rules" of Instagram: You can only post one time a day, and you have to do it at a certain time, or nobody will like it, and you have to use these certain apps to edit your pictures, and if you use any of the Instagram filters, your picture is so much worse, and only hashtag if it's ironic, but for your account to be even remotely cool you have to have at least 500-plus followers and get on average 140-plus likes, so good luck!
WHAT THE HECK.
Since when do we base our worth on others?! Since when do tiny numbers under a horribly edited picture tell me how good I am?! Since when did society tell me that this is how it is supposed to be?! Why is it that every moment is posed, looking for the perfect shot to Instagram later? Why is it that we spend so much time obsessing over a picture that we forget to actually live in the moment?
I can't tell you to stop obsessing over Instagram, because I know it won't happen. But I can tell you that we are more than numbers under a picture. You know it, and I know it, so let's start acting like it.
