Isn’t it weird how we crave attention and likes from people we don’t know on Instagram?
I was thinking about this the other day while I was sitting at Starbucks working on my screenplay when suddenly I had to stop to take this dumb photo. I was in the midst of actually writing some meaty dialogue when out of the blue I just got the Insta urge and had to stop what I was doing to feed my sick little addiction. MUST.POSE. PHOTO. Everyone must see what I’m doing right now or I’ll die. So will they.
So for the next ten minutes rather than working on something that is really important to me and what I want to do with my life, I chose to take 100 different photos of the same shitty shot and toggle between filters wondering which one looked best.
And then I didn’t even post it. I decided it wasn’t good enough, which it isn’t, but that’s not the point. Or is it? I don’t know.
The point is I’ve been doing this a lot lately, putting aside important things while I get wrapped up in the silliness of social media. More specifically, Instagram.
We’re all trying to showcase the best version of ourself on Instagram when most times I feel like we’re our worst version. At least I am. I’m not the kind of person who likes to take selfies of my hand or show the world what shoes I’m wearing, but my IG account would prove otherwise. Harlow photos are the exception. Those are definitely the best version of me.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately and the fact that I participate in this game and often even feed off it. Sometimes I like it, but for the most part it just feels cheap to me. Yet I still do it. Hello, giveaways… I just did one for the first time in a long while last week and watched as my follower count rose and rose and it gave me a little thrill. I thought, hell this is easy, why work for followers when I can just do this every week?
But why? What does it matter?
I tell myself it’s because “it’s good for business.” More followers = bigger brand attention = more collaborations = I’m able to pay rent month after month. That’s definitely a huge part of it, blogging is my job (and I don’t want to lose my job) so I have to keep up with all areas of it or I’ll get left in the dust. *April/May will be sponsor heavy. eye roll. sigh. grunt. I know, I know. Trying to save money for a wedding…
Anyway, the whole business thing is a little scary to me. I see girls doing 3-5 giveaways a week, gaining 10k followers along the way, and I’m sitting here going, but wait, it took me three hours to write a post today. Come over to my blog! Then you’ll follow me… I’ll win you over with my wonderful punctuation and grammar and witty rants about social media!
The worst part is I’m a hypocrite. I kinda hate this world and yet I willingly put myself in it. I continue to do all the weird stuff that bugs me. A side of me thinks it’s fun collaging silly little white photos, because when I make a “good one” I can stand back and feel proud of my pretty creation. (I’ve never been good at creating pretty, I’ve always been the kid with the ugliest drawing in class.) And there’s no harm in posing pretty stuff, right? I tend to like everyone else’s #thatsdarling photos.
But another part me is like whyyyyy!? Can’t we go back to blurry ugly photos like when Instagram first started? Those were the good old days. “Everyone look at how grainy and ugly my life is.” I nailed those pics.
And now I have no idea where I’m going with this. This is probably just a jealousy fueled rant because I’m not good at photography and everyone else. Our world is ridiculous.
Tomorrow I’ll rant about Ariana Grande and make everything right again.
What are your thoughts on Instagram? Is it still as fun for you as it’s always been?
all so so so true. I have a love/hate relationship. On saturday we were late to the concert because I wanted to instagram something. THATs how psycho i am. Shouldn't it be instant- this was michael asking. yes, but because I'm weird it no longer is for me. It sucks. But have no idea what to do.
I also have a love/hate relationship with it. I hate that I follow so many different people so that I can enter contests but then my feed is full of contests and not the pictures of my friends that I really want to see. And you can never just post a picture that you took – you have to edit and filter and do all sorts of stuff.
I still love Instagram. I have mostly followed bloggers and celebrities. Not to many IRL friends are on Instagram. Sometimes I think my pictures are not as good compared to other people. Mostly pictures of my kitties. But, that is okay. I think everyone enjoys when people like what you post. If it is on Instagram, Facebook, or a blog post. We want others to enjoy our content. Yes it is very hard to post a picture without using a filter haha.
I have noticed that several high profile bloggers have tried to "perfect" their Instagram photos lately. Perfect lighting. Perfect font. Now, every single one of their photos look alike, no matter what the subject matter is. When bloggers do that, I'm out. I love the everyday life side of things…like photos of greasy cheeseburgers, dogs, and sweaty workouts. White backgrounds and perfect fonts get old quickly!
Hilarious, and so much truth!!! I think what I struggle with most when it comes to blogging is that constant need to balance selling and authenticity.
I also loved your point about how so many times when we try to look our best on IG, we're really feeling (or behaving) our worst. Why else would we feel the vital need to curate an image when, if we were truly enjoying ourselves, we'd probably forget all about it?
I'm addicted, it's a sad state of affairs! I will test myself from time to time and not post, but it kills me :/ xoxo, ganeeban
I def love/hate instagram, but when did it go from ugly blurry pictures to perfectly assembled photos? I defnitly have yet to ever nail a photo.
I tend to forget about Instagram. I love it when I think to post to it, but I don't automatically default to it. Which is probably why I hardly have any followers!
I can relate. I hate a lot of blogging/instagram trends but I also love growing my blog and it seems like those two can go hand in hand. I'm hoping that more people will want to follow my blog because they see my heart and not my pretty, posed instagram photos. But that's maybe expecting too much hahaha
This is something I struggle with ALL the time. I feel like to gain followers anymore you have to do those perfect staged and unreal photos. Those are the ones that receive attention. But then I feel like a massive fraud who is just waiting to get pointed out. It usually just ends up with me sulking on my couch thinking my life is boring and not Instagram worthy. One thing I know, the constant pull of Instagram makes me realize all us bloggers are a little bit nuts.
I mostly do Instagram for me, and no one else. I have fun playing with the filters, and just HAVE to take random photos of my cats and dog, whenever they're being cute. SOmetimes people like them, sometimes they don't. True, I get a thrill when a stranger likes it, but I can't stage photos for anything.
I am the same way. I love producing "Instagram worthy" shots, yet it is annoying that I feel I can't just post the same way I would on my personal Facebook page. Instagram is the glamorous version of me (heavily filtered and mostly staged), where Facebook is the real me (more spontaneous.) It's all so silly, isn't it?
I really love this post because I have been feeling really similarly about instagram lately. On one hand I love it, I love seeing other peoples' photos and I love looking back on the memories some of the photos in my instagram feed remind me of but there is so much fakeness. I can't bring myself to use all the hashtags I need to to gain followers (because I feel like a stupid attention whore). I can't shamelessly plug for people to follow me because I feel embarrassed (even though I don't judge other people doing the same thing). I like your blog for its writing not it's instagram (though of course I like following you on Instagram) but when it comes to gaining collaborations the "numbers" are so important…it can be a really tricky balance!
it's so true! so many feels around this because i super love getting a look into people's days and what they are doing and even eating (hello…i'm super voyeuristic and hence why i love blogging). but sometimes it is just too much. sometimes the eye rolls from my husband about having to wait to eat until i snag the prettiest photo of our food (last night) should matter more than setting the perfect scene.
Yess! It's like you took the words right out of my mouth! I don't get it. I really don't. It's a love/hate relationship for me. I can't tell you the last time I've posted a non-flitered/brightened up photo to Instagram. Part of me enjoys making the photos "pretty" and the other part of me is like wtf are you doing? I don't think I would do everything I do on Instagram if it wasn't for my blog. I just feel sorry for my non-blogging friends that don't get it. At least we get a pass from our blog friend followers!
I am an addict and to make matters worse I am now looking at IG as a pseudo dating site. Yes, I've had two. You can tell a lot from someone's insta feed, like how much time they are willing to spend looking perfect. Guilty. Aaaaand… You know it's bad when you are telling your real life friends to hang on a sec so you can filter your selfie just right lol.
I'm totally guilty of spending too much time trying to get a picture and then playing with it for awhile before deciding it's not instagram worthy. Or sometimes I'll post it anyway and then end up deleting it haha What a waste of time! I typically stick to dog pictures and scenic pictures because those are the ones that feel most me. I think I only have one actual selfie up and it's with my dog of course. It's hard because half of my instagram followers are friends and family and the other are blog friends, so I always think my real-life friends and family are like wtf when I post something only bloggers do!
I'm still in the category of my photos aren't that great, so I don't have many followers or get many likes. But, it's a true reflection of me and my life sooooooo I'm okay with it.
I don't have instagram just saying
I'm still an Instagram fan but mainly because it isn't my job and most of my posts are of my kiddies… So I'm doing it for me! And it's private so no crazy creeps on there to see my pics too x
I was recently sitting in a cafe in Mayfair (super-posh part of London) and I spent a good 15 minutes Instagramming a millionaire's shortbread with an artsy-looking bite taken out of one corner. Then a beggar came to my table to ask if I had any spare change and I had to explain that I didn't, this one cake was literally all I'd been able to afford. And I'm not sure if there's really a conclusion to be drawn from that but it certainly wasn't my finest hour…
I hear you on this stuff. I don't get wrapped up in it on Instagram (Well.. for the most part. I do sometimes.) but I find myself getting wrapped up in it with blogging, vlogging, and social media in general. Mainly vlogging lately because I'm in the middle of Vlog Every Day April. I get caught up in the popularity contest and trying to get more subscribers and wanting everyone to comment on my videos. I wonder why some peoples videos are more popular than mine and I can't seem to get a rhyme or reason why some people "Succeed" and some don't. The same thing happens on my blog. (Although that has been neglected lately due to VEDA.) I love both because I love creating content and writing and filming. I also really love getting to know other people. I hate how competitive and shallow it can be though sometimes.
I think that out of all the social media Instagram is the most vapid. And it does pull us away from the moment. I only joined the last month and it is just another stupid duty on a long list of places I need to post and participate in because of blogging. Twitter, Instagram and Google+ are my least favourite. Probably just because I've been on FB the longest.
When I tried to explain Instagram to a friend she caught on immediately. She said, "Oh, it's like when you were 19 and used to sleep with lots of different people you didn't even care about and it didn't mean a thing?" Oh yeah. That is Instagram.
bisous
Suzanne
I do not have an Instagram account, because it seems that my experiences are more frequently shared in words than pictures. My time-suck happens on other websites.
I love Instagram because I love looking at pictures, but I don't love when they are super staged. Give me all the dogs pictures and I'm happy.
I came to your blog because it was recommended to me from Bloglovin…but I stay reading it for your witty and fun posts. I agree, its takes some ridiculous measures to get people here but I feel like your followers stay becasue you are real and don't buy into the nonsense. Happy Monday 🙂