Please Instagram responsibly:
I remember when all my friends started getting on Instagram. They all pressured me to get one, and to see what all the hype was about, I did indeed download the app and started perusing. With a love of photography, I started following who I believed to be some of the best Instagrammers out there. I started posting pictures, using the social media network as basically a supplement to the photographs I typically post on Facebook. Much of it was exceedingly personal, and my account, during the early days, was private.
When I started figuring out more what Instagram was about, I began getting into the hashtags and the artistic side of the app. Some of the most beautiful images that I have ever seen have been on Instagram. The endearment of the possibility to capture the world in a manner that can be seen by anyone with the instantaneous click of a button is captivating. The fact that someone created an app specifically for photographic endeavors and art to be attainable to nearly everyone is positively brilliant and wholeheartedly charming.
Some of the Instagrammers I was following, however, seemed fake and stagnant, and many of their pictures felt sterile and staged. When Essena O’Neill, the popular Instagrammer, revealed that many of her photographs were indeed staged, that she was addicted to the high and sense of self-worth that she got when she reached new levels of likes or followers, it opened up my mind about Instagram and social media. How much of what we put on Instagram is for us, and how much of it is for likes? I had to ask myself these questions while reevaluating my own presence on social media and Instagram.
I believe that Instagram was likely not intended to be a continuation of the posts on Facebook, but rather for the art of our daily lives. There is so much beauty that occurs in our world day to day, and we just have to know where to look and how to appreciate it. So I beg of you, please use Instagram responsibly. It is not like Facebook, but rather its own entity of art for the sake of beauty. Choose to upload pictures, even with a cool filter, of things or people or days that inspire you.
Do not fear using hashtags. They can connect you with other people in the Instagram community, your art inspiring theirs and vice versa. I hashtag a lot in my Instagram photographs, not so much to get likes or more followers, which is a side effect of hashtags, but rather to better reach people with art and perhaps inspire them or brighten their day just a little bit from it. Do not fear filters, they can typically enhance your images if used tastefully. Do not fear following people. Art for the sake of art and beauty for the sake of beauty is not contingent upon your followers-to-following ratio. Do not stage your pictures, post as you go. Most importantly, do not fear being able to put yourself out there with your art.
