Friday, September 25, 2015

Living for the Like

Nearly 150 million people are signed up on Instagram posting around 55 million photos a day. Some accounts range from food accounts, to fitness inspiration, to really good looking rich kids traveling the world, and then you. We have begun to rely on how many likes we receive on a photo to dictate not only our self worth, but also the self worth of others. Posting pictures on the popular app has become less about the actual picture and has instead turned into a competition among users. According to Hannah Loewentheil on PolicyMic “We rely upon social media as a mirror into other’s lives and we use it to portray ourselves according to an image we want others to see.”(Isbell, 2013). It has changed from what our opinion of an Instagram-worthy picture is to what kind of picture you think would get the most likes from other users.
This type of idea that we are always living in a picture perfect moment is what drives Instagram. We take advantage of users, showing them only what we want them to see, not the whole truth. In a Huffington Post article Kay Green poses an interesting question, “Are we really presenting who we are or are we presenting a hyper-idealistic version of ourselves?” (Green, 2013). I believe if we all took a scroll through our own feeds we would have to admit that we may have whitened our teeth or erased a blemish or two to get that perfect Kim K selfie.
 Putting forth this idealistic self makes filters and retouching apps that much more important, and with the overwhelming amount of options in the app store, your picture is expected to be flawless. The days of taking 7th grade bathroom mirror pictures on your crappy flip phone camera and immediately uploading them as your profile picture are over. Today it is all about getting the right angle and perfect lighting, and then uploading it to one of many apps for filters, and retouching. Of course after all of this it is an absolute must to send it to all your friends to get the upload approval.
 The only reason we do this is to become aesthetically pleasing to other users and get that extra like you want or a few more followers to even out your “ratio”. Some people go as far as buying follower apps to receive more followers to validate their seemingly high popularity to themselves and others. It is also common to use the hashtag “instalike”, or “likeforalike” to get a few hundred or thousand likes from complete strangers. This is all done in the hopes that other users will see them as being higher up on the somewhat existent Instagram hierarchy.
 This expectation to have flawless pictures, hundreds of likes, and thousands of followers is peer-pressure. We put it on ourselves that without the acceptance of others what we do is irrelevant, and we need to go above and beyond what has already been done. Capturing moments no one else will have the chance to get or photo ops in over the top locations, just to show the world you can do something they can’t. But when does this not render true? How far is too far? There is always going to be someone who is better than you that you will not be able to compete with because some people are always a step ahead of what is trending.
So what do we do now, knowing that what we are seeing is not the whole story? Well, deleting the app would be extremely drastic, but being aware that what you are seeing is meant to be seen in a different perspective. Instagram can be used usefully as well, creating marketing jobs and letting people who truly have an interest in photography share photos. The users you follow do not have to be friends, celebrities, and accounts that make it feel like a competition.



Work Cited

"How Instagram Is Affecting The Way We Perceive Ourselves And The World Around Us." Elite Daily How Instagram Is Affecting The Way We Perceive Ourselves And The World Around Us Comments. Ed. Adriana Mariella. Elite Daily, 24 June 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

Isbell, Danielle. "Does Instagram Change the Way We Perceive Our Lives?" Nvate. N.p., 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

Herman, Jenn. "Instagram Statistics for 2014 - Jenn's Trends." Jenns Trends Instagram Statistics for 2014 Comments. N.p., 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.

Anderson, Lane. "The Instagram Effect: How the Psychology of Envy Drives Consumerism." The Instagram Effect: How the Psychology of Envy Drives Consumerism. N.p., 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.


Green, R. Kay. "The Social Media Effect: Are You Really Who You Portray Online?" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Aug. 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 28, 2015 at 11:44 AM

    I personally am someone who actually deleted instagram about two years ago now because of this very issue. I am someone who is very serious about photography, but I couldn't stand the whole issue with "likes." It's hard because someone can be totally aware of it, but deep down if you only get, say, 15 likes, it does feel kind of crappy. I'm not sure why, but it does. I was tired of people telling me "I need one more like, like my picture!!" If I actually thought your picture was nice, I would have liked it in the first place. So I completely agree that it has turned into a place where people try to boost their self worth by the amount of likes that they receive, even if they told half of the people to like it, because no one else knows that they did. There's a lot that can be said about this issue and I think it's awesome that you touched upon all of the different, little pieces of it. I really enjoyed reading what you had to say.

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  2. UnknownSeptember 29, 2015 at 12:48 PM

    I completely agree with this. I think social media, specifically Instagram has gotten out of hand with people competing for the best photos. I do admit though I only post what I want others to see, and of course its only the good things in my life. Although, I do keep my profile private as the idea of having strangers “like” my photos does not appeal to me. I hope this trend eventually dies down, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 15, 2015 at 4:30 PM

    I loved reading this post because I think it's safe to say almost all of us who use Instagram feel this way, this sort of pressure to have a perfect feed and posts with lots of likes. When it comes down to it, social media seems to have turned into a popularity contest rather than a place to connect with friends and stay up to date on "what's new". I know I'm a culprit of wanting that "perfect" picture and wanting to get a surplus amount of likes but sometimes I just force myself to step out and look at the big picture and say to myself, "does this honestly matter?". I've found I don't feel that pressure anymore and I just post whatever I want! I hope this ideal of social media being rather a test of popularity and how "cool" you are to the outside world stops soon and people start to realize you don't need to post every memory or event to an audience.

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