Does Instagram Make Us Bad Human Beings?

Written by:
Paolo Vera, Year 12

When Facebook purchased Instagram back in April 2012 for approximately $1 billion US dollars, many questioned whether or not the acquisition was a smart business move on Facebook’s part. Now fast forward to the last quarter of 2013 and no one is doubting Facebook’s purchase: statistics show that Instagram grew by a whopping 23% compared to the mere 3% that Facebook grew by. With Instagram being the fastest growing social network and currently having over 150 million active users, I think it’s safe to say that we are living in an Insta-crazy world.

However, is this obsession with likes and filters good for us? Is documenting our everyday lives through square photographs healthy for our society? Studies conducted on Facebook have shown that viewing other people’s posts – especially their vacation photos – can provoke envy and in fact lower self-esteem. The features of Facebook that mainly trigger these emotions are the pictures, the comments and the number of likes, which are basically all the aspects that Instagram offers. Instagram is exclusively image driven as well, and photos often cut deeper than words. A picture of someone happier, healthier or more successful than you can spark feelings of inferiority. Therefore, Instagram is essentially a more concentrated version of Facebook that lowers users’ self-esteems to an even higher degree.

With over-stylized pictures and crystal-clear edits, Instagram can in fact result in a distorted image of life. People spend hours looking for the perfect image and using the perfect filter when posting a photo. Many users devote large quantities of their time to edit photos and make them even more faultless. This ultimately idealizes life and perhaps gives people unrealistic perceptions, in turn leading to unrealistic aspirations. Although it is typically a good thing for people to have high ambitions, improbable scenarios can often result in devastating disappointment. Instagram sets society’s expectations far too high for these dreams to ever materialize.

In social media, competition is fierce. As these websites all offer quantitative data: the number of likes, comments, shares etc., people constantly check how well their most recent post is doing – even so to a point of obsession. I think many of us, myself included, can admit to refreshing our Instagram page frantically just to watch a tiny orange heart pop up at the bottom of the screen. Perhaps even more pathetic than staring vacantly at your phone for hours is the increasingly common, ever-so desperate “can you please like my picture” messages that signify you really have hit Instagram rock bottom. Now because of the aforementioned quantitative data oh so kindly provided for us, a subconscious ranking system develops in our mind and we immediately must compare our own number of likes to that of others. This in turn can develop feelings of hatred, envy and, once again, inferiority. Do we really need to feel bad about some silly social media site when there are much bigger problems?


As Instagram is a largely item-driven site, with pictures of bags, cars and clothes being large fodder for the app, the danger of materialism is at a peak. With the popularity of such accounts as the Rich Kids of Instagram and The Fancy, millions of followers are encouraged to live a ridiculously lavish life and aspire to obtain opulent things. These accounts thrive by showing us items the majority of people cannot afford hence making the masses feel unsatisfied with their own lives. Because we are constantly bombarded with images of luxurious merchandise, it makes us hard to be grateful for what we do in fact have. Furthermore, it could even lead to poor financial decisions in a person’s attempt to achieve this “Insta-perfect” lifestyle.
                               
At its core, the main purpose of Instagram, and most other social media sites, is to capture and share memories. Regardless of the likes and the comments, these images are meant to symbolize a significant moment in one’s life and the emphasis should be on the happiness rooted in the photo, not on the response one gets from one’s followers. That being said, Instagram was not created to induce competition or lower self-esteem; therefore, Instragramers should not succumb to the pitfalls of this admittedly enjoyable app. So before you get upset about the number of likes you got on your most recent post, don’t start messaging distant relatives to like your picture and instead remember that what really matters is the memory that photo represents.

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