The nature of Instagram discourages authenticity – but is “over-filtering” killing the platform?
Instagram is undoubtedly a platform built on sharing your “highlight reel”. But who the heck has highlights right now, or for the past year? And who can blame anyone for avoiding other people’s (stuck-at-home) highlights when we’re all struggling so much with productivity and creativity?
I didn’t speak much about it or really announce the goal, but an intention for 2020 was to try to be *less* highlight-y on social media. I wanted to share more ugly-phase WIPs, show my creative failures even when I didn’t have a solution ready to share, and post less ~flattering~ (UGH) photos of my face and body.
And it was hard. Posting unfiltered is hard.
That’s partly a me issue – I’m proud and self-conscious and I’m trying to be, if not an expert (the dream!), then at least a guide in this community. So I struggle to be unfiltered.
And if I learned anything from hot dog adventure 2020, it’s that mistakes, failed art, and ugly phases are both interesting AND relatable. And interesting and relatable is what I would call GOOD CONTENT.
But the truth is that on IG, it’s just *not* good content. Less-polished stuff doesn’t perform well. Less filtered shots are tough to post psychologically AND THEN don’t generally get great engagement.
Look, I’m here to make connections and relationships AND to grow as a maker. If I have to bow to what IG demands, I have to believe there’s a happy medium between ~pretty pictures~ and genuine authenticity.
Otherwise, I do think IG will eventually die. I don’t believe people want to consume surface level people and surface level content (and I don’t believe anyone wants to BE those creators, either).
So what am I, personally, taking away? I’m still going to post here as motivation – without a schedule, I don’t get anything done.
But I’m also going to redouble my efforts to censor my content less for the sake of creating genuine connections and showing a genuine human.
But of course, this is a growth that perfectionist-self-conscious Fish is still working through 😅
Thanks for reading! I welcome your thoughts and I appreciate your attention 💚