Today’s world is full of influencers. What you eat, what you wear, where you go on holiday, and even what you speak is heavily influenced by social media. Although people today are smart enough to realize that it is not okay to compare yourself to other people, social media still provides you numerous opportunities to do just that.
Recall that heavy feeling in your heart when you see your friends and celebrities posting photos doing exciting things like going on long drives, attending glamorous parties, and visiting rare places. This sinking feeling is known as Instagram Envy.
Instagram is all about unadulterated voyeurism. You will not find Facebook’s messiness or Twitter’s relatable content in the posts here. Instagram is almost a photo site with built-in vintage filters idealizing your every moment. It encourages its users to create these perfect layouts of their lives, almost as if everyone is living their fairy tale.
Why Instagram Envy Happens
There is an unspoken rule adopted by the users worldwide to avoid populating the feeds with any mediocre or unedited pictures. Now you might feel that it is all about showing off to your followers, but that is not the case here. It is trying to level with everyone else posting one amazing picture after another; it is trying to feel good about yourself that you are in no way less than any of your friends. Owing to this rule, people often end up spending hours in hopes of composing an image of food as simple as a glass of coke over a dish of pizza worthy enough for their Instagram feed.
The followers, on the other hand, are expected to indulge in the ethics of impress rather than confess, all the while being swept away from the sumptuous photos and chipping in with beautiful comments. Even the likes are shaped like little hearts, reinforcing in the minds of the viewers, the idea that each shot is a performance worthy of applause. Every last image is an advertisement for the self.
In a society focused on physical appearance, this is perhaps no surprise that there is an element of narcissism to Insta-bragging. People with a higher level of narcissism post more self-presented photos and update their profile picture often.
Dealing with Instagram Envy
One approach to counteract Instagram envy is to showcase love, not luxury. People who generate Instagram envy can also use the same platform to demonstrate that they understand and embrace the value of citizens of all social and economic strata by posting about them. They will gain more followers than foes by showcasing love.
Another aspect you need to understand is that living through the lens is not all bad. Social media has made us all social, without a doubt. You catch up with long lost friends in no time because you already have an idea of what is going on in their lives. But you need to accept social media for what it is – it is social and it is, after all, media. You really shouldn’t blindly believe everything you see. You learn through experience that it is better to know how to post than to boast.
Image Courtesy: Google
International Journal of Research (IJR) 