B E H I N D T H E F I L T E R . . .
The time has come….. after some deliberation I have arrived at the decision that one of the main relationships in my life has to come to somewhat of an end. Scarily enough that relationship happens to be with a social media giant in the form of Instagram.
I’ve had a strong Instagram presence for some time, regularly updating, liking, following and at times networking. I’ve built up over 2000 photos about my life, some vain, some personal, some emotional, some funny, some reflecting the past and some focusing on the future. A few weeks ago a follower commented on a photo with ‘You live the perfect life’….that comment has haunted me ever since. Those words certainly set my mind thinking about the boundaries of privacy and the extent to which we are truly willing to open up our lives for all to see.
I love my little life, it’s certainly far from perfect but I love to cherish and remember moments big and small. For me instagram has always been a way to record these and I now have a visual bank of a full spectrum of moments built up over the months since becoming a user.
There is something both liberating and epically scary about being able to look back at your year through a succession of photos fed live to the world.
Since starting my blog I’ve given myself a platform to think and open up about my thoughts, fears, passions and interests. It feels true to express myself in that way….and in turn has emphasised how untrue a reflection visual platforms such as Instagram have come to be. Through the click of a few buttons and a carefully selected filter we transform into photographers, chefs, models, therapists, style gurus…you name it! The prospect of living, loving, connecting, conversing all through the screen of a phone is certainly an unsettling one but one that appears to be gaining growing acceptance by the day.
The boundaries have been blurred and I too have at times crossed them revealing more about my life visually than I would be comfortable to on any other platform. When you scroll down a homepage full of selfies, quotes, couples and food pics there seems no harm in adding another to that list and I have done it tenfold. Over the time that I have followed Instagram I have seen the nature of the images change as identities merge and morals lapse. The main goals are now to promote ones wealth, beauty, success, relationship and eating habits (on top of many others.)
You can approach anything with an overly idealistic and moral outlook, I’m not sat here trying to preach about my planned demise of Instagram, but more to put my hands up to a realisation that I have become part of a world that is fuelling greater issues with self-esteem, privacy and adding pressure to an already highly materialistic society. These concerns apply to every social media platform, but never more so than one which focuses solely on the pressures of conveying your life visually in the most attractive way possible.
It takes a little shift now and again to make you step outside of normality and reflect on what’s important, for me the after taste of such a competitive, superficial and addictive platform isn’t quite so sweet when I really think about the wider picture (excuse the pun!)
I’m not going to walk away completely, there are friends and relationships that I have built over many months on this platform from all over the world. There is also a very enjoyable and beautiful side to Instagram that has created global networks of people sharing inspiring images and re-connecting through photography. It is this side of the platform that I love and this is where its strength lies, over time the superficiality will burn off and there will be a new craze to quench that thirst.
No I’m not leaving it completely…but I will however now approach it with somewhat of a different mindset. What I really want is to see a bit more of this world through my own eyes, I want to go out for dinner without my phone, I want to cook a fabulous meal and dive straight into it, I want to drastically transform my very scary make up free face and not post it for the world to see. When I wake up tomorrow and feel happy in the mirror, or comforted by my coffee or inspired by something I have read…I’m going to keep it to myself, the only ‘like’ I really require is my own.