3: What does Instagram mean to you?

Here's a bit of background on me: I downloaded Instagram a couple years ago because I heard it was a valuable way to connect with friends and meet some new people. I rarely post on my story, and the only post I ever made was to advertise the fact that I do private lessons. Other than that, I don't scroll on Reels, use TikTok, use Snapchat, or really anything similar to that. My social media presence is fairly minimal, and I like it that way.

    So here's my question: what does Instagram mean to you?

 This discussion isn't meant to call out anyone in particular. I don't want to come across that I'm more righteous than you or anything. I just want to express my thoughts about what I see on Instagram.

  Ever heard of the Pareto Principle? I'll break it down for you. The principle essentially says that, for a given group, 80% of the consequence is caused by only 20% of the causes. Conversely, it also means that the remaining 20% of consequences are the result of the actions of 80% of the active causes. Ok, so what does this mean in practice? 

• 80% of the land in an empire is owned by 20% of the population,
• 20% of the soft drink dispenser is used by 80% of customers,
• 80% of complaints a business receives comes from 20% of its consumer base,
• 20% of a computer keyboard's keys get 80% of the presses,
• and 80% of the Instagram stories I flip through are from 20% of the people I follow.

  Did you catch that last one? I hope you did, because it's kind of the whole thing I'm talking about right now. I'll repeat it, just in case: 80% of the Instagram stories I flip through are from 20% of the people I follow.

  I promise that this experience is not unique to me. And no, it's not substantiated by concrete, mathematical data, but I don't think it needs to be for my point to make sense. Think about it: there are a handful of people you follow that post the most often. Then a few more people that show up every once and a while. Then, there's a TON of people that are hardly active. You probably won't even think of them off the top of your head since they rarely appear. Then, of course, there's all the people you follow who have never posted to their story a single time. The Pareto Principle is fascinating, and I highly recommend this Vsauce video as he touches on it there in more detail. 

  If you fall into the camp of someone who posts pretty often on their story, I have to wonder why. Is there even a reason? Is it because your followers are expecting you to share what's going on? That seems unlikely. Do you care how many likes you get? How many fire emojis you get (I see you, Henry). If you share something you think is cool, and get zero likes, how does it affect you? What about if you get a nice reply from a follower, sharing their perspective or quickly commenting on your story? Is that better, worse, or the same as getting a few likes?

  Maybe you don't post for your followers. Maybe you post for you. Maybe you need to feel like you're succeeding. Maybe you need to fill the void with... something. Here's what I don't really grasp: the compulsion to share what you're doing at any given time. Your sunset. Your ice cream cone. Your evening out with your silly friends. I'm not gonna pretend like it isn't fun to share something every now and then, and that's exactly why most people do it. But quite often, I see someone's story and think, "You're doing this awesome thing right now, and your first thought was to post it on Instagram?"

  I legitimately think that a lot of people would have the same difficulty ceasing to stop posting on Instagram as they would have to stop viewing other people's posts. If you think that's you, I'm not judging. I don't think less of you. I just want you to think about why you do it and truly evaluate if it's making your life better.

  I've recently started thinking about my relationship to Instagram and if I actually enjoy it. I realized that looking at other people's stories isn't just a mindless, passive activity: it completely rewires how you perceive others. 99% of the information I find out about other people through their stories is utterly unimportant; nothing I ever needed to know in the first place. But it still affects us. By viewing our friends through these artificial, fleeting windows, we forget how imperfect we all are. We compare and contrast our lives. We build delusions, and we stray further from happiness.

  The more we post about ourselves online, the more our life becomes a performance. And when the audience loses interest in our lives, so do we.

  If you legitimately enjoy posting on your socials, then more power to you. If you like sharing your favorite memes, reaching out to others for genuine engagement, and seeing what your friends are up to, that's fantastic. Social media is a great tool for that kind of thing. 

  But let's face it. Some of you need to get the hell off it. 

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  So, let's revisit the question. What does Instagram mean to you? It's somewhat rhetorical. Really, my main goal here is make you think a little bit about the role it plays in your life. The ugly truth is that social media is the cause of so many people's unhappiness, and we're all actively participating in it anyway. The only way this can be possible is if it's making you unhappy and you don't even know it yet.

  If you made it this far, I would love if you left a comment sharing your thoughts. So far, about 20% of the audience of this blog are responsible for 80% of the nice comments. Wouldn't you like to be part of that elusive 20%?

 To me, this is an ongoing discussion. As new technology and algorithms are released, these are the kinds of things we need to think about. Engage with it or don't, but always think about it first.

Until next time!

Jabe