How does Instagram make you feel?

I never understood why people disliked social media, or instagram or it made them depressed.
I normally completely love instagram and it never bothers me, I find it always very inspiring and super creative people on there.
But today I’m looking at people decorating their nurseries, and doing engagement photos, painting their new house and I wonder why they were so fortunate? Even tho I’ve had an interesting life, all I’ve done for a decade is suffer.
I feel like I have a very very unfortunate fate. All I wanted from life was a little house, husband and to paint. I didn’t have any huge dreams, but it all eluded me.

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TinyViolins · 31-35, M

I've never used it personally, but at work I would see all the young ladies glued to their phones as they scrolled through an endless list of photos. It's like they were in a trance, completely unaware of their surroundings.

I think apps like that breed addiction and disconnect people from their surroundings. I don't think that the content on Instagram is necessarily bad, but I feel like the algorithms behind it leech away our ability to focus or to be alone with our thoughts. It's like watching people hypnotized by slot-machines

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sirenofthesea · F

Yea definitely it must be taking a toll on their mental health, I follow only really creative individuals and sort of cottagecore and it’s more about how creative you can be.@TinyViolins I follow girls like this https://www.instagram.com/adventuringbeth/ so I don’t get any exposure to beauty queens competing for attention or kardashian type stuff. Lots of young women are getting into this sort of cottagecore, so hopefully that will leave a better impression.

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

@sirenofthesea Yeah that's always the difficult part of social media because there are so many creative uses for it. People get exposed to all kinds of new ideas and inspirations from strangers all over the world. You really get to capture a diverse range of influences with it. I'm not knocking that part.

It's just that young people in particular who don't have experience or agency in the real world default to using it as a means of finding a place in the social hierarchy. I kinda wish there was an age limit that allowed kids to fall away from that mentality

BetweenKittensandRiots · 36-40, MVIP

@TinyViolins @sirenofthesea https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739

You're not wrong. I say this as a -well- known techno optimist too.

People KNOW I'm excited about technology and am trying to work in the field.

And yet I'm disillusioned and well aware it has downsides.

[media=https://youtu.be/BIsH686xWl0]

Mellowgirl · 31-35, F

I no longer feel pressured to have a personal Instagram account.
It's quite freeing.
Yes I haven't uploaded since Easter but I try to maintain things with my stories.
I love that I'm sort of on the borders of society since it Means I am not subjected to peer pressure.

I never fit in.
So I always struggled, got depressed as I was left out, especially when I dated someone who made me feel like I was never good enough.
But now Im stronger.
I don't even look at those accounts that could make me potentially feel worthless.

BetweenKittensandRiots · 36-40, MVIP

People have curated social media to purge it of any confession at all of negative experiences.

We became a very "positive vibes only" culture after the secret and then after that all you'd see on Social media was essentially the highlight reel after years of toil and struggle for it.

And there are a million ways to look like you have more money than you actually do.

I knew a guy once who essentially was hired to do various things around rich people's property while they were out of town who could easily of acted like he owned the place at least for long enough to con the internet into believing it.

You can take a bunch of things out on debt, or RENT them and take a shot of yourself in a lambo as if you own it.

You really don't know, all you see is a photograph. These people are to a huge extent deliberately manipulating you.

[media=https://youtu.be/2iQaxvqVGSM]

Jungleman · M

nothing, i don't use it and never will.

Pfuzylogic · M

Instagram is very freeing for me and I noticed I received a lot more attention when I linked it to my Tik-Tok account.

Serendipitymaybe · 51-55, M

i like that one. DM me

rrraksamam · 31-35, M

Never used it.

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