Advanced Essay 2 + Zeniah Navas
Introduction:
My essay is based on the craze of Instagram. How instagram is shaping men and women to believe that they have to be in a certain catergory to fit. It's a hole that people get sucked in for hours trying to find different ways to change themselves or be popular. I'm going to prove how it's not only all good that we see from the outside. This essay touches on teens who are looking at those Instagram Famous people and thinking negatively of themselves. Now, I am not innocent of this either which is why it touches a special place in my heart. I am confident. Be you. Thank you.
Essay: How to Become Instagram Famous 101.
How to Become Instagram Famous 101. Step 1: Look at what other famous people are doing. Step 2: Change your wardrobe to match the fashion craze. Step 3: No matter what you do, do not give up your front. These are steps are all, but none to finding your identity. The pill people have a hard time swallowing is how much we allow categories to define us as well. Just as in social media. While we scroll, swipe, or post, we fail to realize how we are also categorized others on social media as well. The more followers, the more likes, the more popularity, and the more steps to trail away from your true self.
Step 1: Look at what other famous people are doing. Celebrities have thousands, sometimes millions of followers for being famous and known outside of their social medias. With the value that we put into social media, people often become famous in it. There’s relationship goals that become viral and with the couple gaining thousands of followers. For example, Chris and Queen, they began posting small clips of their relationship that then went viral. Them going viral allowed them to create a Youtube channel and gain income from it. They went from lower, to middle, to upper class in months. Now, Queen is a star-singer with lots of recognition around the U.S with her income flowing. This idea of becoming famous from social media created the term Instagram Famous. Instagram is a social media app that is allowing people to do things to become famous.
Step 2: Change your wardrobe to fit the fashion craze. Find celebrities, find models on what are they wearing, where are they shopping, and what stores are tagged in their post. All of this matters. Not only does this tie into what they're wearing, but also on how much they're spending on their clothes. Typically, we see this more touched on females. Women believe that to be accepted they have to have the latest fashion, the latest shoes, their hair has to be on a certain type of criteria, and their bodies as well. Being natural is not always accepted. Yes it may be accepted from time to time, but that's not what the craze is about. It’s not what Instagram has told us is accepted.
Thandie Newton gives a Ted Talk on how she attempted to be open on who she was while being a teen: “The self that I attempted to take out into the world was rejected over and over again. And my panic at not having a self that fit, and the confusion that came from myself being rejected, created anxiety, shame and hopelessness, which kind of defined me for a long time. But in retrospect, the destruction of myself was so repetitive that I started to see a pattern” (Thandie Newton, Ted Talk). As she says, people weren’t always accepted as themselves. Since social media is such a large part in society, it pressures people more to change. Just to obtain likes, people change their personalities and even alter their wardrobe or physical appearance to gain.
Step 3: No matter what you do, do not give up your front. Now began 6th grade. I’m a pre-teen now. I’m growing up and getting more privileges. Hence came social media.
“Be careful with what you post. Don’t stick out your tongue. Don’t show too much,” the lecture goes on from my parents.
I shrugged them off as any normal pre-teen would. It was my time to shine and show myself. Little did I know that the world would be watching. I saw older girls posting pictures with prerogative poses; butt on sink, shirt down just enough to see boob separation, etc. When you’re a young girl, you believe doing what the older girls are doing will make boys like you more and there I went. Post after post, like after like, now the followers came. The increase in followers increased my confidence. I thought that with boys telling me I was beautiful that I was the best of them all.
“No matter what you do, do not give up your front,” my best friend told me.
With the years going on and my maturity level continuing to increase, I realized that I had to subtly show I wasn’t the little girl I once was. I wasn’t looking for boys to like me anymore, now I was just me. With the confidence I had already gained, it was easier to know that I was going to be accepted. No matter what I did, I did not let others know my front.
Thandie Newton continues her Ted Talk and states, “It's more a reality than the ones our selves have created. Imagine what kind of existence we can have if we honor inevitable death of self, appreciate the privilege of life and marvel at what comes next. Simple awareness is where it begins” (Thandie Newton, Ted Talk). The idea of us having to address what we love the most is what’s holding us back. Social media, especially Instagram, haYove ties into our day to day lives that going against it or what it holds would be wrong. Regardless of who is in reality knows you, the world that is watching may have a different perception. The concept she throws out of it being more a reality is chilling. It’s what we believe is truth. If Instagram said it, it’s true. If Twitter said it, it’s true.
Instagram is not going to give you money to find yourself. That’s not how it was created. Instagram does not have emotions floating around so that it can have sympathy with you. You will be who you are or be who you’re not, no ifs ands or buts around it. Now I am not saying being instagram famous is negative or there aren’t people who aren’t their true selves. In reality, it’s a sacrifice. Whether to be accepted for yourself is the choice.
Comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Log in to post a comment.