Instagram Isn't Real!!!
Hello there. It's been quite a while since I have shared something more then a sequence of photographs with the public, and I think it's time to change that. This topic is something that has been forming in my mind for months upon months, and I'm happy that I've finally found the right words to convey how I feel about it.
Honestly, Instagram is pretty great. I've met many cool people that have become my friends because of it. I got to participate in a fake wedding that was staged for Instagram and Facebook. I've gone to places that people I follow recommended, and they turned out to be really awesome and fun.
I think that Instagram is a great place to share photos and get ideas and inspiration. However, most of the time, that's not what it is. To me, it feels more like a competition. If it's not who has the most followers, it's who gets the most likes or who has better pictures. It's "I posted that photo and it only got "X" amount of likes in the first hour so I'm gonna delete it." It's "I don't like how that photo looks on my profile because it doesn't match the rest of my photos and it makes me look inconsistent."
Answer me this: Is your life consistent? Do you always succeed at everything you do on the first try?? Is everything that you lay your eyes upon absolutely breathtaking and beautiful??? It would be great if we could answer yes to these questions, but I'm afraid we can't.
No one's life is "picture perfect." No one does crazy cool things every day of their life. Sure, you went on a trip earlier in the year and it was awesome. But now you're back home and you have to wake up tomorrow and go to school and deal with people you don't like.
Take a look around. Have you met someone who is as perfect in person as you thought they were on the internet? I haven't. There are people that seem cool and collected and adventurous, and I want people to think about me like that. So I try and I try and I try to do better things with my time and take more pictures so that I'll live up to this standard of what a cool person is supposed to look like.
I mean, come on. Don't tell me you haven't followed someone just because they have cool pictures or because they have thousands of followers. We've all done it. It doesn't matter what we do or where we go, there always seems to be someone who is doing something cooler or going somewhere better than we are. And for some reason, we think that by following those people, we will become just as cool as we think they are.
I don't see a problem with being inspired and encouraged to do great things by the people around us, but for me, it seems like a standard that I have to live up to. I'm young and I need to make the most of my life. I should always be "exploring" and having a great time. Yeah, if I could, I'd spend all of my time going on "adventures" and seeing the world. Who wouldn't? Most of us, however, are not independently wealthy and are required to work if we want to travel somewhere.
I think part of our culture fears the mundane. We don't want to live a boring life, so we fill our minds with other people's pictures and live vicariously through them until we do something fun on our own. I say, embrace the mundane! Of course, there is a time to be adventurous and do exciting things. But there is also a time to rest. There is a time to be quiet. There is a time to unplug and reflect. You don't have to do something awesome everyday of your life. You can, but you don't have to. It's okay if you don't. And even when you do fun things, you aren't required to share them on Instagram. It's not a crime to want to keep special moments to yourself.
Judgement is also something that is very present on Instagram. Someone can check out your profile and make a split second decision if they want to see more of you or not, based on what you've decided to say about yourself. If they follow you, and then they don't like what they see, they can click a button and never see you again. What would happen if we made all of our decisions like that?
I think that some of us treat our relationship with Jesus like we treat Instagram. I follow Him for a few weeks, and then He starts posting some weird stuff and it's kinda getting in the way of my social life and I really want to be with this person and they don't like Jesus so I'm just gonna unfollow Jesus. Poof. He's out of my life and I'm free to do whatever makes me happy! I'm sorry. That's not how it works. You might think that you can follow and unfollow Him at your leisure, but at some point, you're going to have to make a permanent decision.
It seems as though a great number of us have found our identity in Instagram. We place ourselves in a group of popular people and strive to fit in. We do whatever it takes to rise to the top and essentially, in my opinion, spoil the essence of photography.
To me, sharing your photos with your friends is a privilege. Years ago, if you took a picture of something amazing, you had to develop it and mail it to your friend in the town next to you for them to see it, let alone like it. We've turned photography into something that it is not. A competition, a battle, an "I'm not going to like your photo because you went somewhere without me."
At any point in time, the whole internet could vanish, never to be seen again. All of your precious photos of filtered sunsets you thought no one else was posting would be gone forever, and you would have to go have a conversation with someone or serve them in an act of kindness for them to "like" you.
Bear with me here. I've expressed my unpopular opinion about Instagram before, and I've never gotten a positive response. Everyone I talk to just thinks that I'm being rude or that I think I'm better than everyone else. You might think the same thing about me. Chances are, though, you've never met me. You don't even know what my voice sounds like.
But hear it from me, I don't think that I'm better than anyone else, and I am certainly not trying to be rude. As someone who has chosen to follow Christ and dedicate their life to Him, I find it hard to stand back and watch my friends and other people on the internet get swept up in this facade that is Instagram. It's sad to see the people around me, myself included, waste so much time and energy searching for happiness in a place where we will not find it.
At the end of the day, Instagram doesn't matter. What matters is who you are in person and what it's like to be in relationship with you. Are you kind? Are you a good listener? Do you practice patience in situations when it's hard to? These are things that are overlooked on the Internet, but are extremely crucial in person.
My friends, if you struggle with feeling inadequate and unhappy because of social media of any kind, I would encourage you to take a break. Figure out what is most important in your life, and focus on that. Don't be afraid of what people on the Internet think of you. Strive to be beautiful in God's eyes, and not in the world's.
2nd Corintians 4:18 says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
Your Heavenly Father loves you more than you could ever imagine. His love cannot be deleted and it will still be here even when everything else fades away. Run towards Him and away from this world, even if that means running away from Instagram.
As always, thanks for reading.
Till next time,