Instagram is a place where anybody can become a photographer. Problem is, for most of us, our “photographic eye” doesn’t see too far beyond our own faces. I just saw a girl I knew briefly in college use the app to declare “Great seats at the game!!” under a breathtaking closeup of… herself (and a few knees belonging to the people seated behind her). Throw in some cloud pics (#art), a quote from Rupi Kaur (#thisisme), and a caption about how culturally transformative a two-week tour of major European landmarks has been (#takemeback), and you’ve got yourself an Instagram timeline. Just a shallow, narcissistic, faux-introspective circle jerk where we try to convince everybody else — and in doing so, ourselves — just how awesome our lives are.
It’s bullshit. And am I getting way too mad nothing? Absolutely. But I’m as self-centered and boring as everybody else, so I love going on tired, uncreative rants about how social media brings out the worst in us (wow, Alex, what a hot take!) Fuck me. I also plug my stupid meme page every chance I get, so not only am I a self-centered and boring asshole, but I’m a hypocritical asshole, too. Double fuck me.
Anyway, this Instagram account called satiregram sums up the platform using handwritten notes to describe the usual clichés. It’s so spot-on that after reading this gallery, you can go ahead scrub Instagram from your phone. You’ve seen it all. Except for my meme page.
