Instagram


I made my first Instagram in 7th grade, mainly to follow basketball players and see what they post on social media. Once I found out that many of my peers also had an Instagram account, I began Instagram.


My first post was related to cubing. I got like 10 likes. 

But soon my friend Josh made an Instagram, and we began racing to see who would get the most followers. We would go on the "find people" page and follow everyone, hoping to get a follow back.

I looked at other people's instagram accounts. Another one of my friends had 500 followers, which made me jealous.

I soon began determining popularity based on follower counts. "this person has more followers than another person? I didn't expect that." 

I was hungry for more followers. I was always thinking about what others saw me as. I was worried people would judge me. 

Fast forward a year or something and I got 200 followers while my friend had 400. I gave up on my quest to get as many followers as I could and took a break.




I just can't imagine what using Instagram is like for a girl. Normally it's the girls who have 1000 followers with loads of selfies of themselves. All the smiles on their profile could easily be fake. 

Soon it got worse though. Posts began to have 100+ comments. They were filled with "pretty" "beautiful" "cute", often with heart emojis.

As I looked through these comments, I was cringing. There was just too much positive energy on this app.
Too much fake energy on this app. Way too much.





Instagram is a horrible platform. The memes can bring you many laughs, but you are always caught up to make yourself look good to others, whether it's comments, followers, or posts. Many times I feel pressured to post things that don't reflect who I am.



I made a new private account where I only interact with my close friends. It feels much more natural, and I can gain an insight about others. Sure, I still only post positive things on there, but I feel more free to post what I want, as I know there won't be people judging me. 

I soon deactivated my main account, as every time I went on it, I felt empty. People's first reaction when learning that it's someone's birthday is to make a birthday post on Instagram. The definition of hanging out is now going somewhere with the intention of posting it on Instagram. People are taken over, controlled, and hypnotized by the desire to have more followers than others. 


Last but not least, social media itself can waste a lot of time. I've spent an hour on instagram before, just scrolling around. You can use that time to do many other productive hobbies. 



Here is my raw, unedited, brain dump of Instagram.


Lyric(s) of the Post: 
My life
My life was black and white and I believed it
I believed it
My eyes
My eyes looked at the world but couldn't see it
I couldn't see it

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