Every time I open instagram, the algorithm servers me with the warmth of an amusing reel or some’s friend’s full-page picture. To the user it is a sense of “missed connectedness” that needs to replenished. But the question is, do I need to know what my friends did on the weekend, or even more fundamental one, am I even friends with them? These simple questions are difficult to answer because of how our lives have been shaped by the Instagram and Facebook. We know as a fact that the people who we are connected with do not need Instagram story to keep us “in touch”. In fact, the more closely we know someone the less we would need Instagram or anything similar. So the Instagram’s slogan, “bringing you closer to the people you love” is superficial and misleading to say the least. It has been found out in many studies that people feel insecure about their body and have low self esteem, this is particularly more prevalent among teenagers. From what I realized is this, our brain feels rewarded by seeing the likes of other people on the picture we post, the reward is enough to post again. This sense of appreciation encourages the user to post more to get the same feeling, but this time its impact will be less so the user will need to post even more to reach the same level, it eventually turns into an addiction. This is how social media influencers are born. Once a ‘normal user’ starts posting, it gets incentivized by the platform and eventually starts posting consistently. It feels worse after scrolling the instagram’s feed because of the unintended comparison by seeing the lives of celebrities our mind makes. This puts one on the crossroads to even use the platform. Excluding the celebrity’s content, the instagram posts can be divided in two categories.

  1. To show excitement This is the type where a person is truly excited about what’s happening in their life and shared their life’s moments online. This excitement is subjective, what someone has achieved in a long time could be someone was born with, thus this is left to the audience of the posts to judge. Anything posted out of excitement would fall into this. For example, I once excitedly shared the post of me getting good grades in college on Facebook.
  2. To make brag This is the type where the poster wants to boast that something has happened in their life, now its the time to “show off”. We as social creatures want to be seen when we do something. But to do so on instagram, you have to post pictures ONLY and edited ones. For example, a picture of a train + filter will render it completely out of a movie scene. Instagram is designed in a way that the platform leaves very little room for the caption, which in turn discourages a user to write beyond couple of words. Most audience will either not comment or even if they do, there is nothing more to say than praise the poster/cameramen. And the poster expects the same, to be praised for their high resolution image. Practically there is no room for discussion. In my humble opinion, all posts on instagram should be auto-captioned as boasting edited pictures. I allege that most of the posts on Facebook/Instagram are in this category.