You refer to them by their account name, you know their life yet you’ve never met, their posts make you say “I’m ded” or “k you’re perfect,” you double tap every post to get them to notice you. These actions are the result of Instagram famous Millennials that rule social media. Their cliché posts of themselves in nature, or their feet cross-legged in bed with hot cocoa, are so outstanding to others. We see their life as easy, fun, and #goals. But in reality, they are as bog standard as the rest of us, and their life is normal, average, and sometimes #fml. Yet why does a number of followers create such a buzz? How do so many people admire someone who simply posts the good parts of their life and hide the mundane?
I would say it is confidence based. These Instafamous people have the guts to create an online persona that is not truly them; they brand themselves, curate their feed, and edit their captions. Those who do not have this type of confidence can be intimidated by those that do. There are many unwritten rules of Instagram (featured in the video link) that a lot of people can recognize and see through, but some people cannot. This could lead to a serious issue in comparison and a belief that the life of an Instafamous is perfection and yours is not. It could also effect the way that the Instafamous act in real life. They could see themselves as superior to your peers or other people in your demographic. They could also get too involved in cyberland and forget about what is happening in reality.
But it’s not all negative on those with the Instafame. In this day and age, with social media being a huge platform of creating an identity, it is commending that people are embracing it rather than seeing it as a danger or waste of time. Millennials are a generation that tells their story every day, on their phones, and every social media platform imaginable. Every day these people are creating and are moving towards connecting the real world with the online world. They are breaking old norms and creating new ones; they are moving with the times. Yes, they are making themselves out to be something that are not truly, yet they are helping society develop and extremely passionate (at least about their feed).
I've noticed in my own social media, people only "Like" the positive posts; the ones where I've achieved in areas they don't feel they've yet lived up to, or when I've shared some lame piece tech I just bought with hashtags such as #highlife and #nextlevel. ( I do this rarely to see what reaction I can get).
ReplyDeleteIt's ridiculous to me that people are less interested in people for who they are, and more interested in this unattainable image of success which is devoid of hardships and where everyone and their gay uncle wants to have sex with you.
Your first paragraph sums up about 1/4 of the people I follow on instagram. It's interesting how we single story these people based on what they want us to see, not on what their real life is like. Interesting concept, great topic.
ReplyDeleteI hate how well I identified with this.
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