The Potential It Has

The Potential It Has

Social media has so much potential to be used as a creative and positive space, however, some people mix it with other agendas.  I think that platforms such as Instagram open up so many more variables than the picture itself.  As soon as you attach a number to anything in life it is open for direct comparison.  It is so easy for people to be compared to others, and to compare themselves to others, people begin trying to compete (a very sub conscience intuition).  

This contributes to the very selected amount of photos you see on your feed.  Just the other day I was at the beach with my family.  I was sitting on the beach blanket, playing frisbee and swimming in the water with my brother. All while my family and I were doing this, I watched as two girls next to us on the beach spent the entirety of their time taking photos of each other.  It went like this: take a photo of her laying down, check to see how she looks, run back down to the blanket, re-adjust her position slightly, and repeat the process.  I am not saying this to stir up humor against these girls, but instead using them to represent how most of the people on Instagram are.  They (I can assume) only posted one of those photos, but it was the most selected and edited photo ever.  They were able to control every aspect of themselves that they put on the internet.  I can also assume, that they were not doing this to be creative, but to control how every inch of their body looked in their bikini, to maximize the number of likes that would later appear next to her name.  Someone scrolling through this photo on their feed would envy this girl, at the apparent ease or her natural beauty, without knowing the hours of photography that went in to that one photo.  

This is where the domino affect comes in.  This, as I am sure you have heard a million times before, leads to body image insecurities and to the formation of beauty standards.  But its a cycle, that once you are in the game on Instagram you cannot get out.  Once you are a viewer you are hooked on the feeling of jealousy, and as a member in the race, you are caught by the feeling of controlled "perfection."  Will the cycle stop? How will it evolve? Will the addicts that play its game stop giving in? I honestly have no idea at all.  The bright inviting logo does not give off this impression, therefore it must be fine, i'll just check my Instagram one more time.....