Let’s take a journey. The year is 2011. I’m vacationing on a small beach outside Jacksonville, Florida when a friend casually says, “I found this app called Instagram. It lets you add these things called filters to pictures.” A small statement that changed my life forever.
For a while, everything was fine. The app wasn’t very popular. My feed consisted mostly of mediocre scenery and food. I averaged four likes per picture. I didn’t think about it much. Though, I’ll never forget the day I reached the coveted “11 likes” marker. It wasn’t until about six months later that Instagram took off. People began posting like crazy. There were selfies, “flashbacks” that were in actuality just two-week-old pictures from a bar the user forgot to post sooner and obscure pictures of sunsets with quotes that had no relevancy. An app categorized as “Photography” quickly became a fad that deviated far from that.
Our lives revolve around Instagram, and it appears as though our generation is currently more focused on creating a successful Instagram post than making long lasting memories. “Which picture should I Instagram?” “Which filter looks best?” are two of the most common questions you will hear during human interaction. At sporting events, concerts, Thanksgiving meals, churches, hospitalizations. No occasion is above being Instagrammed. The minute something significant happens, the phones are whipped out. And everything is filtered — our children will believe that back in our day, everything was slightly off yellow or orange tinted. If the stress that is brought about by trying to select a filter wasn’t enough, just wait until you post the picture. That’s when the real anxiety comes. Users are consistently refreshing the app to see an updated consensus of likers on said photo. I have witnessed with my own two eyes people deleting their pictures due to the lack of likes they received. Instagram users consider it embarrassing when their pictures don’t receive enough likes; is the fact that you liked the picture enough to post it on the internet not enough for you?
I’m convinced that people engage in life-altering affairs such as getting a tattoo, purchasing expensive novelties, and – going out on an extreme limb here – even adopting adorable children all for the sake of putting it on the Internet and increasing the number of likes on their photos. It’s not even enough now to take a picture on your iPhone. No. People take bulky high-quality cameras everywhere, and they document everything. Don’t be that person. Leave your camera at home. The last time I wanted a high quality picture of me at dinner or in the Grove or a bar was never. Please keep your Nikon d800 out of innocent civilian lives. Those cameras are for photographers. You are a mere Instagrammer in The Corner Bar.
I challenge you this. Go on a vacation or a one day adventure without your phone or camera. Look at great architecture, observe the beauty of the natural world, engage in philosophical conversations, eat exquisite food, get roaring drunk if that’s your thing, and let this day be yours and all remnants of it remain only in your mind. Live a life you can enjoy, not one that is set out for the approval of the basic users on a “photography” app. Make memories, not Instagrams.
Rachel Wilson is an accountancy major from Tupelo.
