Social-networking sites have come a long way since the early 2000’s. First it was Myspace, then Facebook and Tumblr, and now Twitter, Instagram, Kik, Snapchat, etc. These websites and apps draw a lot of attention from young people as it connects them to their friends, family, and other people from all over the world. It also gives them a chance to follow their favorite celebrities, sport stars, and actors/actresses. We decided to focus on Instagram specifically for our cultural artifact.
Launched in 2010, Instagram allows its users to post pictures and share them with the world. When someone posts a picture or video, he or she is able to apply a filter and edit the characteristics of the picture or video. These features have allowed many users to alter their looks in many different ways. One way specifically, is that these features give the users opportunities to hide their insecurities. Many of these so called “flawless” photos have poured onto the site. These pictures have many young people looking at “Instagram models” for inspiration. This then leads many of the users of Instagram to define their worth based on how many likes or followers they get. People want to look as perfect as these models and strive to look like them and post pictures similar to theirs. However, it is a very different point of view for the models.
To most of these models, their candid, simple pictures are actually a job to them. The candid photos they post, aren’t actually true candid. They are staged in order to look as perfect as they can be, so in return they receive more likes and followers. They also do ads for companies such as teeth whitening products and detoxifying teas, and they receive money for their photos and videos. The recognition from these companies started from their want for follows and likes. In the video above, 19 year-old Essena O’Neill had become addicted to Instagram by trying to gain as many followers and likes as possible, and she finally realizes that she was not happy and was not being true to herself. She ended up taking off the original captions to her photos, and then she began writing the truth about the pictures. She would explain how that the pictures were not candid or she probably did not eat that day, and so on. Even a model like her was unhappy with herself. This shows exactly how there are so many stereotypes of which women need to be like. Essena spent so much of her time trying to fulfil what a beautiful women should look like, when in the end it just made her miserable.
The reason why we chose Instagram is because it has become very popular in the past few years, especially for people around our age. This topic also ties in with what we have discussed in class about how our society has this idea of what beauty is. In order to be “beautiful” you must have a certain list of characteristics. This then leads to society not thinking many people are beautiful unless they fit those characteristics. For a woman, you must be skinny, have a flawless face, hair, skin, teeth, etc. However, not everybody has all or any of these characteristics. Social media such as Instagram promotes these stereotypes of what a beautiful woman is, if you do not get a certain amount of likes then you are not beautiful. Our society and young women especially need to stop stereotyping what beauty is. They should start with Instagram. Post pictures that you feel confident and happy in because that’s what’s beautiful.
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