Instagram culture is now becoming fuel for insecurities

By Gisselle Washington | Staff Writer |

On any given day, there are 80 million photos posted on Instagram which earn around 3.5 billion likes ( according to https://www.thefactsite.com/instagram-facts/). It’s one of the best social media for posting our everyday day lives in a few snapshots ⎼ from take-and-go selfies to beautiful stills and hilarious memes. Through this widely used app arose Instagram modeling culture in which one’s account is paid for the amount of likes they receive. This has now become an aspiring career for some. As a tool for self promotion, Instagram has now become a platform that feeds into people’s insecurities.

The obsession with getting a certain amount of likes to feel accepted and approved leaves a dangerous mentality for today’s youth. Dependence on everyone else’s approval in the forms of likes is detrimental and can lower someone’s self esteem. Society begins to compare themselves to others and use that as a measurement of their worthiness.

Very subtly, my friends will mention in conversations how a post on their Instagram didn’t get the attention it deserved or delete the post all together because they weren’t “attractive enough” for today’s standards ⎼ standards that can only be met if we have freshly cropped face tune and 10 different filters layered on. The majority of Instagram models do not accurately represent the faces of our youth and that’s not what we should be basing our beauty off of.

Another instance in which I saw this being exploited was through an ad on youtube by the iconic  Facetune app itself. Promoting adjusting your eye size, slimming your nose, and much more to gain that picture perfect look! How appealing. What does that do to a person psychologically? It says, you aren’t good enough so try this product to get the validation you need. Although I’m aware of the harms it could cause, what about a more impressionable middle schooler?

This kind of ideology should not be promoted receive financial gains through any social media platform. Natural beauty should be advertised and what society applauds. The next time you post a photo of yourself, don’t dwell on the number of likes for acceptance because you and the other one billion accounts that post 80 million photos a day are being viewed subjectively.