Practically everyone is addicted to Facebook and Instagram. Social media is the future, an entertaining and addictive one at that. People are able to keep in touch, share album-worthy pictures of prom, graduation and family dinners. On the other end, newsfeeds are full of girls posting selfies with their pink lips puckered in a duck face and the iconic drunken selfies complete with red solo cups or a beer bottle blazoned with a noticeable brand.
People can be obsessed with getting the perfect profile picture or spend more of their time on vacation snapping pics from their iPhones laboring over deciding the best filter to make the beach pic look amazing. It goes without saying that the picture needs to come across as pretty without trying too hard. There’s the worry that your mom is going to post those horrible pics from a family trip and tag you in them because she thinks it’s cute. After posing for a pic with friends, people greedily ask to see the phone, not just because they want to see how it turned out. Someone is always saying that their hair looks messed up and it’s not Instagram-worthy.
Many people are guilty of these small obsessions, but why do people care so much about a picture snapped in an instant?
Who doesn’t get a little excited when scrolling through Facebook to see that bright red notification flashing that someone liked their photo? It’s a sudden rush or high. Okay, maybe not that exciting, but it’s satisfying to know that someone liked what you posted-especially if you took all of the time and effort to make an artsy photo on Instagram look effortless.
Yet in the age of popularity being summed up by the amount of followers you have or likes you garner, it’s difficult to draw the line. Although it is innocent and normal to want people to like photos, this should not be a way to feel accepted or grab attention.
People (myself included) need to enjoy a moment and stop worrying about how it is going to look posted for everyone to see. Life is not perfect and in real life there is no Photoshop , soft filters or cropping.
A recent example of social media’s sneaky pressure is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Raising awareness for crippling diseases seems innocent enough, even noble. Using media in a digital age is ingenious to involve those of college age and younger.
If people really think about it, tagging friends and giving a sentence of donating 100 dollars or dumping freezing cold water all over is not in the spirit of raising awareness.
Newsfeeds became their own YouTube channels of ice bucket challenge, some people making elaborate posts and using the challenge to show off in a bathing suit to get a bunch of friends to like their videos.
Facebook and Instagram will not go out of style for a long time and posting pictures is a great way to keep in touch, preserve memories and show off photography skills (even if aided by filters.)
Of course it’s rewarding to have a notice that someone liked a photo, that’s natural. Yet let’s put the phone down, stop focusing on posting the most epic pic and enjoy life. Finding all attention through media outlets is more of a transient sense of happiness. Go make something last longer than it takes to snap a picture.
