Instagram. Where to start with Instagram. I'd be surprised to find someone who didn't have a love/hate relationship with the nations favourite social media site. Whether you use it as promotion for a blog, to show everyone what you're up to or to give everyone food envy at every given chance, almost everyone is fighting the battle for likes.
If Facebook didn't already push us all to curate every aspect of our lives to make them look more exciting than they will ever be, Instagram definitely did. From one drink made to look like a whole night out, #drunk #wild #drinkingonaschoolnight #someonestopme, to a sunset view made possible only through heavy filter use, the desire to look perfectly interesting has taken over actually enjoying the moment.
By the time everyone has the shot of the meal that has just arrived, edited and filtered, tagged and added a location, and uploaded it to Instagram, the food is cold. But that's okay, because you've just hit 11 likes, Miss Popular.
The hypocritical part of the whole post is that I am too, that person. I'll shuffle everyone's plates and glasses around the table until it looks good, I'll take the same photo seven times just to be sure and I'll use as many filters as are available to make me look taller, skinnier and prettier. But what a sad story that is.
Why don't we put down our phones and talk to the people that are in the moment with us, rather than tagging them and waiting for their like? I'm lucky to be part of the last generation that grew up playing with actual toys and reading actual books, before Apple decided to make everything downloadable. If I'm honest, I feel really sorry for children who grow up playing on an iPad and sit in front of the TV every evening. They don't know what they're missing.
