We get it.
Your life is glamorous, care free, and borderline perfect-- or at least it appears that way. What I'm talking about is the "Facebook version" of our lives. Online, we all seem groovy flaunting the latest trends at the hottest clubs Steffon recommended. Specifically: Instagram. But in reality, our lives are far from that.
Disclaimer: I love instagram. I use it all the time. I, just like anyone else, am excited and almost proud when my insta gets a lot of love. That being said, I use it in moderation.
I enjoy a night in every once in a while. While I'm binge watching Netflix and eating my favorite pretzels and peanut butter, I occasionally look to see what's going on in the world that is college night life. I'll of course check Facebook and Twitter, but what never fails to disappoint is Insta. People post pictures on there like it's nobody's business. Dozens and dozens of moments captured then intricately edited and captioned for optimal LPM (Likes Per Minute, a term borrowed from a dear friend).
I believe there are two fundamental issues with this situation. The first is that these people with the superior sexy lives are Instagraming instead of actually having fun! Photos are posted continually throughout the night and instead of really looking at the picture, all I've started seeing is these people standing off in the corner looking at their phones instead of really being present. This isn't fair to your friends trying to spend time with you OR your social skill development (because last time we checked human to human contact is way more pleasing than human to computer interface contact).
The second problem is that we've evolved into a "like" obsessed society. When posting a photo, we all ask, "Lo-Fi or Valencia? What would be a cute'n'fun caption? Should I put a location or is that too much?" Even after all the deliberation for the seemingly perfect post, sometimes we're still let down. I'm talking about the dreaded, "wahh my insta needs more likes! help plz!! ty!! xxoo" message sent in the group me. When things like this get tossed around, there's a level of embarrassment I feel not for that single person, but for our generation as a whole.
The problem with instagram is it's a sad place. I think we're too distracted by showing everyone how much fun we're having that we're not actually having that much fun.