One thing I became more conscious of last year was social media – making sure I was aware of how much time I would commit to it and remembering to not let it get blurred with my reality.
One way you could describe social media is like a vacuum – and once you’re in that funnel you become part of a content creating loop.
At the time you think this is your own identity but how much of what we post is subconsciously influenced by social media peer pressure and algorithms?
Even now I look back at things I’ve personally posted, even a year ago, two years ago, and don’t connect to what I wrote at the time or associate with it. I guess that’s natural but it’s interesting to see how social media platforms can start a domino effect.
For example – gay hashtags on Instagram are predominantly populated with bodies (literally, just bodies) that some would say fit an outdated beauty ‘ideal’. This creates a cycle of people looking to replicate these images as they see this type of image receiving a high number of like and comments – and therefore equate it to perceived success.
Referring to my own previous posts, I can see how the content I personally put up is almost like a version of me that had been run through a filter of hashtag/algorithm friendly language. And in this case, play up to the #gay Instagram subculture.
This is just one example. There are many more – and various subcultures of Instagram – but they all effectively operate in the same way. And to an extent, prevent people from being their true selves.
But one of the key things to remember is that Instagram is an image based platform. So the clue is really in the name. And when most people think of image, they think of the term ‘your image’ which sparks connotations of something you can control, edit, and project. Essentially your own brand.
But brands were designed to be brands. People were not.
Once when I had therapy to help work out my next steps during a difficult time (job, relationship, location collision) I remember my therapist talking to me about another client she had (strictly confidentially with no details given out) and how this client was an influencer who also, like me, was going through the motions with her job.
Anyway, I remember her describing how her client had got to the point where she was completely miserable but hell bent on creating an outward lie to her followers. Constantly refreshing her stats page to check for new likes and comments – and spiralling into a black hole if posts performed worse than normal. This caused her to completely reshape how she would present herself (but it wasn’t really herself, it was what she thought people thought she should be).
For a while now, I’ve all but cut out my Instagram time (my latest screen report was 10 minutes a week, small victories) but recently when I logged on – I couldn’t help notice endless posts of peoples faces, lots of selfies, some nicely edited scenic shots in front of winter snow – basically just a flood of perfectly edited posts. And for me it was a bit of a wow moment.
It was so eye opening to me, recently I was reading about how this latest UK lockdown has been the hardest for us mentally and physically but – again you would never tell or see that on our social timelines, as even our worst moments will go through a double filter and sense checked before uploading for public approval.
But the long term issue here is the constant dependency on other people’s social media validation. Surely that can’t be good or healthy for anyone.
And ultimately, this is naturally going to prevent you from posting authentically, and really displaying how are you, for fear of a negative response – or god forbid, no likes.
But maybe the biggest takeaway here is – thinking outside of the algorithm. If all of your social media accounts were deleted tomorrow, how would you think, feel and act. Ultimately you need to be happy with the version of yourself that’s presented in reality, not algorithm.
Saturn Return Diary 