Head empty , just post .
Remember when Instagram felt fun? When you’d scroll through a sea of duck faces and over edited sunsets or try to reach 11 likes.
These days, posting on Instagram feels like you’re bearing your soul to the world. The sensation of hitting “Share” after hours of curating a photo ‘dump’ is comparable to the wave of regret you experience when you accidentally overshare to someone you just met.
me after posting on instagrampic.twitter.com/AgFsnKCC7e
The act of posting publicly seems far too vulnerable for the mysterious persona many have suddenly slinked into on Instagram. But this wasn’t always the case, we weren’t always so scared to share.
why does post on instagram feel like that
A decade ago, we would post whatever, whenever. There were no Instagram stories. There were no TikTok trends to chase and simultaneously, there was little to no fear!
Back then , curation of an online image existed with the former lift of influencers but I promise you , as a 14 - year - quondam in grade eight I was n’t thinking about how my followers were perceiving me . I was more implicated about sharing memories , selfies , less - than - consummate nail art and whatever was in front of me .
We snapped photos in-app and in real time. Then we slapped overexposed filters on literallyEVERYTHING, threw some very literal hashtags in the caption, hit “Share” and went about our days. Here’s an example:
I wanted to figure out how to bring that relaxed approach back to posting and hopefully, rid myself of the sharing scaries. So, as part of2014 WeekI summoned the confidence of my 14-year-old self and decided to post whatever, whenever for a whole month.
To give an indication of what I was working towards — you know when your parents exit you at household for 20 moment and your first instinct is to record a screening of " Riptide " by Vance Joy ? Well , I used to do that , then go a step further and brand it on YouTube . # UnearnedConfidence
For this, I needed to create a new Instagram account so that I wouldn’t have to explain why I was posting goofy photos.
Not that I needed to in the first place but in case you have n’t gathered , I was nervous .
Naturally, the 23-year-old side of my brain couldn’t stop thinking, “Will anyone even follow me?” or “You’re making another Instagram account? What are people going to think?”. Completely normal stuff, y’know.
To keep the 2014 theme alive I set myself ground rules to uphold. This included: only posting photos taken in real time on the app, hashtag and put filters on everything and of course, have a silly, goofy time. Here’s how it went:
I also made indisputable to reply to every commentary , and follow every unmarried story that followed me . Channelling my 14 - year - old image to write captions was peculiarly embarassing but nonetheless very necessary to create the full veritable experience .
On the first day of posting, I was nervous. It felt cringey and unnatural to put hashtags on things again. It was strange to post a photo without picking the best shot out of 50 others. In fact, I almost took my first post down because I struggled to get past the idea of someone asking me what the heck was going on.
Once week two rolled around, I had to get my coworkers involved. Purely because I wanted to photograph something other than my #Lunchtime. The simple act of creating community and getting others in on the joke, seemed to change my thinking around the process.
By that weekend of the mini experiment, I found that my photo dump account started to feel safer to scroll through than my main Instagram feed. “I was exposed more to my comfort zone rather than making constant comparisons between me and others,” I wrote in my Notes app at the time. This feeling continued on for rest of the month.
It gave me a sense of closeness to my colleagues and provided topics of conversation with my friends that found the account too.
When I explained that I was send like it was 2014 , it suddenly all made signified to them .
By the end of the four week ordeal, I’d posted 35 times on the dump account and, using my rewired mentality, posted five carousels on my main account too.
Normally , once a month would be pushing it for me .
Overall, this is not to say that creating a photo dump account will absolve you of your anxiety around posting — it hasn’t completely rid me of mine. But, letting your inner child take the reins of how you present yourself online, even just for a little while, can remind you that you don’t need take social media too seriously. You’re allowed to have fun and share how proud you are of your life.
felicitous 2014 Week !
Head empty, just post.
