I’ve been on Instagram for about a year now and just made my first post. Although an amateur at the media format, I do have some preliminary thoughts on the site and how it could improve. Instagram used to be called Burbn, but it had since pivoted. I see the format as complementary instead of a replacement for my text-based content here.
It’s primarily a place for visual content, but I also think it has potential to be a place for photo essays for the masses. Facebook allows users to add a caption for each photo in a gallery, I can’t seem to do that on Instagram. It would be more powerful to tell a story through a photo slideshow rather than just a block of text on the right. To be clear – the block of text on the right explains context, but photo captions carry the story. Context + story.
Apparently, Instagram fluency is also a marketable skill and a vehicle to show off your photo editing chops. Telling a potential employer that you know how to build visually appealing social media posts and use Photoshop to touch up photos beyond then 12 preset filters is a big sell for any marketing gig. Not that I couldn’t do those things before I started posting, but it’s a good place for a portfolio. Kind of like a LinkedIn of leisure.
Finally, there’s the issue of insta-envy. Instagram is a portmanteau of “instant camera” and “telegram,” but it could equally be “instant noodles” and “hologram.” Both are unsatisfyingly envy-inducing. Does anyone still remember hooking up a camcorder to a TV with a VGA cable to show family friends your adventures abroad? I think a more suitable name would be Picturenvy or Jealousnap.
It’s filled with deceptively positive content of all the tings that go right in other people’s lives – including our own. But real life isn’t just about things going right, it’s also about overcoming challenges and learning from your mistakes. If Instagram wants to promote balance and mental health, it has to pivot again to become a leisure version of LinkedIn. A place to share beautiful vacation scenery and to self-deprecate for missing a train. A place to show blossoming relationships and to give tribute to the lost. A place to promote a brand’s success and the difficult road of achieving what they have. It’s balance.
The Internet was supposed to be this place of freedom – the tool that got rid of gatekeepers so everyone could share everything they know – a virtual version of a giant global meetup. And everything in real life happens on the Internet – people fall in love, employees work virtually, students learn at distance, teenagers play interactive games. Instagram, as part of the Internet, should reflect reality, the good and the bad, its successes and failures, all the gains and losses.
Sunday Funday
Just be yourself, everyone else is taken.
Treasure your time, it is precious.
Happiness is timeless.
If Instagram is right and time is precious, shouldn’t we be using our time productively instead of mooning over places we’re not at, food we’re not eating, and weather we’re not experiencing? If happiness is timeless, shouldn’t we find bliss internally? If Sunday is Funday, shouldn’t we be doing fun things like cycling, sowing, or walking the cat instead of being stuck on our phones? If we should be ourselves, shouldn’t we be posting content that’s at least stylistically slightly different from our peers?
If I needed a therapist or a self-help book, I would go seek them out directly. I’m here to learn from others, to absorb knowledge, to share my experiences in a meaningful way. My posts will contain good images, but the purpose would be to articulate knowledge about culture, food, history, geography, and current affairs through a series of photographs, not just the vain showing off of travels and possessions.
