Week 4 – Global Social Media

Instagram is a platform that allows me to express myself in a certain way. Instagram is known for its countless amounts of photoshop and insanely people would buy likes and followers, all for validation. On Instagram, there seems to be an unaired competition between everyone’s accounts: Who has the most followers? Who has the most likes? Whose photos are better quality?

Instagram vs. Reality' Exposes The Truth About Those Unrealistically 'Perfect' Pics | Bored Panda

I tend to not photoshop and buy validation personally, I instead use the social media platform to express myself by posting photos of myself and sometimes with friends or family, were I’m genuinely happy. A few years ago, I would base every photo I posted on the amount of likes I would get and followers I would gain, if it was not sufficient enough, I would then delete it. Now, I post phots for myself and find joy from editing the filters on my photos. I use my profile page as a reflective mechanism, a visual diary I can look back at and be grateful for all the happy memories I have made. I try not to focus on the analytic side of the platform and don’t compare myself to others, it is hard, but I found more self-confidence from not basing myself off other people or worrying about what people think.

In a medium article, a journalist Zaina B, attempted to go 2 weeks without the social media platform, Instagram. In the 2 weeks she was without the platform she then reflected at the end that “In the past two weeks, I have clicked on the Instagram app for completely different reasons. Before, I would go on Instagram to update friends and strangers of the most flowery parts of my life. To figure out why people post things on social media, I had to first ask myself why I post the stuff I do”. She found that spending 14 days off Instagram, helped her reflect on why she was on this application at all. Zaina discovered she used to post (much like myself) for validation off others. Her new quest on the app was to post for herself and to update her loved ones on how her life is progressing.

In this week’s reading about funeral selfies called “Selfies at Funerals: Mourning and Presencing on Social Media Platforms” The authors discuss the extent of social media, specifically Instagram. “It is important not to place too much significance on the selfies and assume that they are a summation of an individual’s feelings and general approach towards the ritual event. Selfies are intended to be an ephemeral and creative form of “live communication” that are part of the ongoing streams of social intercourse in the lives of the people depicted. They are not attempts at storing or preserving life” Van Djick quoted, explaining the form of communication used by an individual to portray their feelings. He later adds it could be loud forms of posting such as funeral photos could be used for a source of validation, in its purest from – a cry for help and comfort.