If You Post a Picture on Instagram and No One Likes it, Does it Exist?
We all know by now that our attention is a hot commodity in the online world. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram need us constantly scrolling to both operate and flourish as businesses. All for ad revenue.
We’re fed algorithms. Companies know what products we search for, our primary interests, where we live, where we work, our age, our gender, the list could go on forever; all of this to keep us hooked and online for hours.
But there’s something else. Something social media provides to the public that is novel: our very own microphone, spotlight, and audience.
Anyone can be a personality now. So many people are waiting for their very own viral moment. Influencers work full-time jobs, growing their audience, promoting products, and connecting with their followers. Being a presence online is achievable for all– and rapidly increasing in value as advertisers can also pay individuals and companies for promotion.
We can get so wrapped up in our online selves, the line between our “real” lives and our virtual ones, once completely separate, are become one.
In Cal Newport’s Deep Work, he discusses this illusion of self-importance that social media platforms provide,
When you know that more than two hundred people volunteered to hear what you have to say, it’s easy to begin to believe that your activities on these services are important, Speaking from experience as someone who makes a living trying to sell my ideas to people: This is a powerfully addictive feeling!
Newport, Deep Work
I have written about internet dependence quite a bit on this blog, but this is one facet that has yet to shine. The allure is the attention and validation of social networking. But it’s a decoy. Because while some do make it to influencer-status or advance their careers and lives through these sites, most people are on a follow-for-follow, like-for-like level.
Our little bubble gives us attention, but going beyond the 2nd or 3rd degrees of connection after our primary ones is typically a rare thing.
Still, we are hungry for that validation. I know many people who will delete their Instagram post if it doesn’t get enough likes in a few hours. It profoundly affects self-esteem in a new way. A new standard has risen, and it is a frightening one.
It’s why Instagram has started hiding the number of likes on posts, and more people have started advocating for more transparent social media practices. One of those people is Madalin Giorgetta, who used to run a former “fitspo” account on Instagram. Fitspo is a term that combines the words “fit” and “inspo.” It was initially intended to fight another trend called “thinspo,” which, as you might guess, promotes thinner bodies as the ideal and, even more dangerously, encourages disordered eating habits.
While fitspo accounts originally aimed toward showing a “healthy” body to aspire to rather than a skinny one, there was an apparent cognitive dissonance. Most of these strong or healthy bodies were still thin. It was not the shining beacon of the body positivity movement that has grown over recent years.
It significantly harms younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z-ers who look to the internet and absorb the societal beauty standards of-the-moment. Giorgetta turned her entire account around with the wide audience she had and decided to use the spotlight she had to encourage a kinder, more open mindset about what a healthy body means.
Our use of social media is such a double-edged sword; in both how we consume content and the way we produce it. Becoming mindful of our habits and perceptions surrounding these communities is a vital first step.
Unrealistic standards of perfection sit upon a pedestal that hurt us. We create pressure to not only look a certain way but also behave in a certain way. We present only the best versions of our lives on the ‘gram: Our travels, our shiny new possessions, our best angles.
Our culture has turned into one of competition – one that nobody wins.