Last month I went to a wedding, explored downtown Nashville, went on a hike and my best friend came into town to see me. What do these events have in common? I Instagrammed all of them.
I’m aware enough of my own selfishness to admit that I didn’t get an Instagram account to see what everybody else was doing, I got an Instagram account so I could share what I do.
Chuck Palahniuk, my favorite author, once wrote, “The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend.”
Social media has become an extension of that concept. Sure, I double-tap other people’s Instas and favorite their tweets, but what really keeps me coming back to any social network is the opportunity to share my story.
I’m throwing myself under the bus here, but it’s safe for me to say our whole generation is obsessed with sharing our entire lives with the internet. We do things with the express purpose of posting them later. People I’ve never met before follow me, and it doesn’t strike me as the least bit weird that they know what I’ve been up to pretty much every weekend since I got Instagram last year — I know, I was late to the game; sue me.
We treat our social media accounts like bonsai trees: carefully manicured and meticulously nurtured. There are unwritten rules about how often you can post on Instagram in a day, which current events are inappropriate to poke fun at, how many retweets are too many and heaven forbid you operate outside those parameters.
There is certainly nothing wrong with social media. I feel obligated to say that because it’s practically built into my major. I think it has the potential to be something great that connects us all. It only becomes a problem when we let it guide our whole lives. Even though social media can feel almost like an obligation at times, it’s also become a place where we can celebrate the things we love — friends, filtered sunsets, music, fun trips or a fresh haircut.
I’ll leave you with this super long quote I pinned a few months ago.
“Food doesn’t taste better or worse when documented by Instagram. Laughter is as genuine over Skype as it would be sharing a sofa. Take in nature, hold someone’s hand, read a book. But don’t ever apologize for snapping a photo of a sunrise after a hike or blogging about the excitement of having a crush. These things are good and should be celebrated. Smile at strangers on the sidewalk and like your friends’ selfies. It’s all good for the human spirit.”
