The modern social media experience for teenagers is a paradox. Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms allow connection like never before, but this connection is facilitated by curated stories, reels, and photos.
Recently, Tumblr and the visual aesthetics of 2016 have been trending—a sign of nostalgia for simpler times where posting was carefree. Instagram needs to return to being a digital scrapbook, not a visually aesthetic grid.
Social media should be fun. But, it is like there’s this invisible pressure to perform, even on private accounts. Most people are followed by their friends, family, and some random acquaintances—so it’s easy to keep up with a person’s life by going through their feed. Pew Research Center found that nearly 97% of teenagers are connected on the internet—62% of respondents also being active on Instagram.
However, this digital social network has a cost. There’s a clear overuse of social media in young people. The average teenager spends nearly five hours a day on social media. This statistic is especially concerning when paired with data consistently linking high screen time with poor sleep, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.
Admittedly, most of this time is spent consuming content, so it’s not the stress of posting that completely contributes to higher screen time. But, constantly consuming highlight-reel-esque content creates a pressure to replicate a sort of perfection. This exposure contributes to an environment that does not feel like real life, but instead an idealized reality. It is here that comparison becomes the thief of joy. Teenagers begin comparing their photos to those of influencers who haven’t had to pay for their vacations in years.
Recently, online discourse, particularly on TikTok, has accidentally begun to deconstruct the idea of “aesthetic” as thinly-veiled wealth and privilege. This started when users began saying that they could tell if someone was high or low income based on their feeds. “There’s the excessive use of filters, the oversharing in the bios, the dozen relatable memes on the Instagram story—all of these signal ‘low class’ because upper class people play by different rules on social media,” Adam Aleksic, known as “Etymology Nerd,” said in a video uploaded to TikTok.
“Overusing filters comes across as excessive self presentation, where you’re trying too hard to make yourself look better. Meanwhile, a ‘higher status’ user will have a more seamless visual aesthetic that feels both integrated with the platform and presents a consistent image of identity where it’s less obvious that you’re trying to get people to like you by modifying who you are,” Aleksic added.
The “minimalist” and “clean” aesthetic of a “high-income” Instagram is just rebranded classism. With this external demand for visually perfect posts, it can feel like the culture is saying that those clean shots are the only ones that deserve to be seen. “The stuff we post online doubles as a semiotic indicator of our cultural tastes,” Aleksic said.
Many users have the desire for a perfect Instagram grid. If a certain photo does not “match” previous posts or get enough likes, it is sent to the deepest chamber of Instagram hell: the archive. People want to both see for themselves and hear that they have a “good” Instagram.
Influencers have been able to capitalize on this desire by selling their advice. Prominent TikToker Evan Gray Smith almost only creates content about how to achieve a perfect Instagram feed, from highlights to posts. While some of his videos are memes surrounding the horror of an emoji in a bio, the majority of his content is rating people’s Instagrams (having made 1,227 ratings to date). Essentially, followers pay Smith 25 dollars for 30-45 seconds of his critiques that are then posted to the public internet—or they can pay double for a private rating. “This looks like a photo you take on accident and immediately delete,” Smith said in a review. Smith’s suggestions have been taken by both paying fans and celebrities alike, even though his only qualification is having an “aesthetic” feed himself.
Looking at trends in the past five years shows us that people are craving authenticity, a lot of these embracing imperfection and messiness. Already about 80% of teenagers have spam accounts or finstas, fake Instagram accounts home to the unglamorized posts full of energy, life, and oddities that should make their way back to the main feed. Similarly, at its peak, the app BeReal leveled the playing field and removed the pressure of visual aesthetics, capturing a spontaneous single photo at a random time of the day.
The rise of the photo dump (the slide of 10 photos that shows that one is simultaneously attractive, a foodie, and fashionable) clearly shows that people want to post for themselves. However, the variety is still all too carefully chosen. It can be “performative” to have slides of matcha and cookies, but choosing to post a random funny street sign is a step in the right direction. Especially if the caption is an inside joke or niche reference, the post becomes much more real in an important way because it shows an actual person behind the glamor.
At the turn of the new year, many people on the internet welcomed the return of 2016, with hundreds of celebrities and influencers taking to Instagram to show their old photos from the era. The throwbacks were fun, messy, and most importantly, real.
Actress Eva Longoria shares throwback photos 
Celebrity Ryan Seacrest shares throwback photos. 
Actress Mindy Kaling shares throwback photos. 
Celebrity Hailey Bieber shares throwback photos. 
Actress Lily Collins shares throwback photos. 
Love Island USA star Leah Kateb shares throwback photos. 
Singer John Legend shares throwback photos. 
Celebrity Kim Kardashian shares throwback photos.
If the current shift towards posting photo dumps, throwbacks, and finstas has shown anything, it is that social media should be a real representation of our lives. It’s time to let the archive rest, and finally make Instagram casual again. By lowering the anxiety of posting and leveling the socioeconomic playing field, we can start to build true communities based on authenticity.
