If you grew up during the Social Media age like me when Instagram was fresh on the scene and quickly climbing the ranks of popularity (we're talking 2010- 2012 LMFAO Party Rock Anthem era), you were probably still in elementary school back then. And despite being too underaged to experience the full extent of the “causal” nature of the app (the one your millennial peers won’t shut the fuck up about) you maybe still remember the badly lit duck lip selfies, gross blue tinted filters, and slightly unhinged photos people (maybe even you) would take with friends or of random shit seen on the daily… yadi yadi yada… you get the picture (wait—this unintentionally ate).
If you do, that’s all well and good because that means you understand the nostalgia. But, do you remember the shift?
The day that the app made a quick one-eighty on us?!
If you don’t, no worries cause I don't really remember the specifics either. What I do know though is that the day we decided to make someone famous on that app because we got so concerned with and fascinated by their lifestyle, travels, clothes, relationships, etc. is the day we all collectively forfeited the “casual” Instagram. Now whether or not that was a mistake is up for debate and not at all the subject of this article. You know what is though? The very sad fact that a “casual” instagram, no matter how hard we try, will simply never be a thing again.
So, better start mourning if you didn't already because just like rainbow loom and the peak of Kesha’s career, that shit died in the early 2010s ( we’re talking pre 2015 Kylie Jenner lip challenge).
Why, though?
Well, if we’re really thinking about it, the culture today surrounding Instagram is simply oversaturated and reflected by individual influence and our personal obsessions with perception. Think “when was the last time I shit posted on my main?” Or if we're going deeper, ask yourself why it is that you have a private finsta or story dedicated exclusively to spamming memes or photos that are “cute” but not “cute enough,” and only select people can see.
It’s because right now it's somewhat socially unacceptable to do the extent (key word) of whatever you want on social media. I say extent because I don’t believe we still have the luxury of posting anything that we somehow haven't already curated or analyzed a million different ways or at least once (and yes this is true even for photo dumps). That nitpicking is exactly what makes our instagram posts today so ingrained in this insidious perfectionism. It makes it so that even in the instance that we do choose to post whatever it is we believe is beyond being perceived, we still deal with this massive inability to detach ourselves from the amount of likes, engagement, follows, blah blah blah, that we do or do not get. Instagramming has become so personal, that a girl can't just post a picture of a rock and call it a day without it posing a risk to her social media standing and self esteem.
Hell! We have traveled so far into the deep end, I fear that at this point posting that random rock would lose you a bunch of followers until someone else who’s famous goes “wow that’s so aesthetic!” And with that one statement suddenly make it socially acceptable for everyone to post rocks, and therefore no longer casual or beyond the ability to be perceived you tried so hard to detach yourself from. There’s really no escape.
Don’t get me wrong, I'm aware that this is a very superficial argumentative topic that by no means I am the first person to comment on. However, I do think that in this fucked up and low key depressing irony, it just goes to show how shallow our society itself has become. Who would have thought we’d ever make it to the day where I can say “casual instagramming doesn’t exist” and have a full discourse about it. That’s honestly wild that we managed to suck a little bit of the fun out of sharing pictures on the internet. Katy Perry “Roar” music video wild (mega props to you if you remember that one)!
