Reading Between the Likes

I reedited my Instagram posts with honest captions; but it didn't make me feel any better. 

The world went into hysteria and started to question everything this week when Instagram star, Essena O’Neill (nope, no idea either) decided to quit social media.

I’m not going to narrate the entire 17 minute video she posted explaining why she did it, but the general gist was because “none of it is real.” Groundbreaking stuff.

She started to edit her carefully constructed Instagram pictures with honest captions. One of her lying on a sunbed (as we all do of a Thursday morning) reads: …”Stomach sucked in, strategic pose, pushed up boobs.”

In the mood to try an experiment, but also because it was far more enticing than the degree I’m paying £9,000 a year for, I edited the captions of some of my Instagram posts, explaining what was really going on there.

Here are some of the results, but if you want to see more, you’ll have to follow me on Instagram (SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION)

"Pretty in Pink, whitewashing my instagram pictures."

"I took longer trying to take this picture than I spent at the entire Holi festival." 

I posted this picture because my legs looked skinny from this angle." 

It was liberating…for all of five minutes. After the eight caption edit, I’d already felt I’d revealed too much about myself to a world I didn’t even really know.

And I guess that’s the point of social media. It’s not real. It’s an imaginary place where we can display our best selves. In a counter culture society that’s always complaining that we give too much of ourselves on social media, I don’t think this could be further from the truth; we’re actually holding back; and the pictures and tweets etc. that we post on social media are never entirely public and unexposed, because there’s no way of knowing the thoughts, motivations and emotions of the individual doing the posting.

Perhaps social media is more private than we think, after all. 

Seriously though, hit me up on Instagram: @georgiaecha