“You can post your photos and add filters on top. It’s pretty hipster.”
It wasn’t the first time I heard of Instagram, nor the first time I’ve heard someone say it was for hipsters. I barely understood who or what a hipster was. But seeing and sharing photos on your mobile device with the ease of turning them into juicy pics was a photographer's dream.
So when Instagram finally became available on Android on April 3, 2012, I went on to download it a few days later. I was never one to jump quickly on any new trends, but I was attracted to the mobile capability to share my photos and to see other people’s photos.
For me, it was a one-click Photoshop. A polaroid picture I could instantly take, view, and share with all my friends.
Click. Post! Done.
Then somehow I got 1 Like.
Just like the first time I smoked weed, I didn’t feel anything.
Or so I thought.
Ironically, my first post was about Instagram. I wanted people to know I was in the conversation and part of the circle but also poked at the satirical nature of what it could become.
Many years after the fact, my brain has succumbed to the addictive nature of the Like. The small drips of attention, approval, and validation of my content, my outbursts, my ego. Has this happened to you?
Now almost a decade since the introduction of IG, our society is finally seeing the long term negative effects of the Like. Depression, anxiety, and suicide are at record highs amongst teens. According to data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, depressive episodes in girls between 12-17 years old nearly doubled between 2011-2013. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt attributes this spike in girls to the rise of social media and mobile devices. Where my generation had pre-paid calling cards, junior high and high school kids now almost all sport the latest iPhones. According to Haidt, boys are less susceptible to depression due to the nature of physical aggression being an outlet, with their devices typically used for the other two major food groups, gaming and porn. Haidt explains that while girls can experience the same level of aggression as boys, it is typically displayed by destroying another girl’s social reputation. Sure. Nothing new right? Rumors, gossip, lies. But instead of being contained in the school hallways and parking lots the way fistfights are, mobile devices can spread the news to everyone you know and even people you don’t at all hours of the day.
For these girls, school is never out.
Sure it’s all correlational data, but we’ve all felt it to a certain degree. The blood rushing to your face when a keyboard jockey challenges you on a public post. The gall. I MUST respond!
Double down. Destroy.
We now live in a world dominated by the Like. I remember the day Facebook removed the Dislike. Too many people were being offended. And just like the removal of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, our world became more nerfed.
The rise of the influencer added validation to the value of the Like. Corporations bought into the marketing. Multi-million dollar companies have become very successful in providing people with Likes, real or fake. We will do almost anything, show anything, and be anything to acquire the quickly dissipating Like. Once we get a taste of one, we check back for another and another. Our brains become tethered to the Like like a bowl of M&Ms or worse.
Reach into your pocket, unlock your phone, and open wide.
Sometimes the cure is to completely unplug from the Matrix. Spending time in the wilderness with no reception is a pill few people are willing to swallow for long. Even when I travel, I feel the urge to share my experiences on these platforms. But in this camera-everywhere, share-everything, record-everything culture, I’ve learned that nothing beats being present. As a photographer, I’m always battling to find a balance between recording and experiencing. Without a doubt, the lens creates a barrier between you and the world.
How often you want to be behind this barrier is a personal choice.
Wherever it is you are, you also have to BE there.
Like with all things pleasurable, moderation is the key. Life is about contrast. There is no joy without sadness, accomplishment without the risk of failure, and no social media without the social.
The Like combines everything from a sensible chuckle to outpouring love into one bucket. In person, we are able to discern the differences between these non-verbal cues and varying degrees of feedback, but the Like lumps it ALL into a single vague pixelated symbol.
As content producers, we mustn't let the Like dictate the value of our creations and ourselves. Being social is being human, but social media is great at reducing these social cues and allows one to fire them off effortlessly without consequences.
The Like may never go away, but it must be balanced with true value, both given and received. The way we’ve communicated for millennia. A laugh. A smile. An honest compliment. A hug.
The Like has allowed us to extend our expressions across the globe, but we can’t forget the impact of face to face expressions of love, anger, and every other rich expression we are capable of as human beings.
So go ahead and fire off those Likes for good, but when and if possible, let’s use the things that helped us survive as a species; human connection. It may be a face-to-face conversation, video chat, or phone call, but for things that matter, go above and beyond the Like.
Fuck yeah, it's Friday!
“The number of people who see what you do is not related to the goodness of what you do.”
-Seth Godin
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