Downfalls of Instagram include the stress on popularity, and posting photos

Ellie Lieberman | Staff Reporter 
Photo by José Moutinho | Flickr
 

With Winter Break here, Instagram users should expect to see a plethora of holiday posts rolling in. Two friends hugging in front of a Christmas tree, that family’s yacht in St. Barts, their trip to Malta, turquoise boxes from Tiffany’s and new Vineyard Vines shirts. There’s no doubt that the holidays are a prime period to post a picture.

Just like anyone else on Instagram, I love receiving likes on my photos, and certainly the more the better. However, that’s just the root of Instagram’s problem. The social media site revolves around how many likes, comments and followers a user can obtain. Sure, it’s fun knowing that 25 people cared enough to comment on your picture, or that your ratio of followers to following is better than all of your friends.

And, by ratio, I mean you have dozens of followers, but don’t care enough to follow them back, giving yourself a good ratio. But, what is this enforcing? That if you don’t get 150 likes on your photo, you aren’t cool? This shouldn’t be the way Instagram works. Likes, ratios, comments, all shouldn’t carry so much weight.

I get it – it feels good when you post a photo that is well received, but what if it isn’t? I know when I get only a cluster of comments, I feel stupid because I made a fool of myself on social media. The aspect of popularity is why people love or hate Instagram so much – in return for a picture, they can gain or lose self-esteem.

This doesn’t mean you should delete your Instagram and never look at it again, but maybe don’t worry about how others will perceive you. Maybe even withstand your “terrible” ratio to give that person you actually know a follow back.