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“Can’t wait for this wedding this weekend,” I said as I packed up my laptop and said my goodbyes to my female coworkers. “I’m going to get so many likes.”
In what should be run on MTV as Real Life: I’m A Millennial Piece Of Shit, my tongue-in-cheek joke is actually, for all intents and purposes, very true. I’m going to put on my tuxedo, I’m going to part my hair, I’m going to order a flute of champagne, and I’m going to ask whichever girl I deem to have the best Instagram feed to take a photo of my girlfriend and I with the reasoning, “my mom is going to want to see some photos tonight.” Upon reviewing the photos and asking for more (“This time with flash, if you don’t mind.”), I’ll put one on Instagram before my girlfriend can steal my phone and send the photos to herself, and in return, I’ll wake up in a haze tomorrow to see triple-figure likes. That’s just how it works at these things.
And the cherry-on-top? Apparently I’ll be happier because of it.
Per The Washington Post:
The Instagrammers, it turns out, may be onto something. Broadly speaking, when people whip out iPhones to document enjoyable activities, according to a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, they end up having a better time than non-photographers. Written by Diehl and a pair of American psychologists, the report argues that taking photos increases engagement with an activity, in turn heightening the feelings associated with it.
This isn’t a novel concept or idea. It’s the age-old adage, “If you go to a black tie wedding or luxurious brunch and didn’t put it on Instagram, did you actually go to a black tie wedding or luxurious brunch?”
There’s absolutely no sense in living life if you’re not going to put it on a pedestal for others to see. If you’re not getting your endorphins firing via your work-friends and college friends double-tapping your photos, you’re not truly living, are you?
I don’t go to four-star restaurants because eating overpriced meals makes me happy. I go to four-star restaurants because I want people to see my Instagrams from four-star restaurants and be jealous that I can afford to eat at said four-star restaurants, which in return, makes me happy. If I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that the best revenge is living well. Darius Rucker said that so it goes without saying that it’s true, but if you don’t have people eating out of your hand and being jealous of your lifestyle, you’re wasting your time on this precious planet. .
[via Washington Post]
Respond
Will
Will (Twitter / Instagram) is the host of The Sunday Scaries Podcast.
@willdefries
@willdefries
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will@grandex.co
I think having more Instagram worthy moments in your life makes you happier. Guy posting cubicle selfies is definitely not happy
cubicle selfies are snapchat only, and never on your story. If a dude is posting Insta cube selfies, well that’s beyond not happy.
This. I think DeFries and WaPo nailed the symptoms but missed the diagnosis. Share-worthy pictures are hard to come by. Most of us can forget about sharing work. Like you said, cubicle selfies are depressing. I work in engineering so I risk termination with pictures. I’m sure there’s something to be said about age gaps too. College parties compared to that awkward late 20s “my friends are moving away” stage where social outings are fewer and farther between. Also rampant unemployment and underemployment means less money to do cool, share-worthy stuff.
“Social media is just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform, so the market said ‘Here, perform everything, to each other, all the time for no other reason.’ It’s prison, it’s horrific. What do we want more than to lie in bed at the end of the day and just watch our lives as a satisfied audience member? I know very little about anything, but I do know this: that if you can live your life without an audience, you should do it.” – Bo Burnham, Make Happy
Boo
That said, there’s a soild line between taking one (okay three) key photos of a cool moment and filling your phone with multiple same moments. Enjoy. Take a killer insta, crop out the less than glamorous aspects. Then sit back and enjoy it more, I know some people who only document and never look at the shit they’re doing.
Bo Burnham is like a comedic Socraties.
I’m just really happy with the amount and quality of content that’s being put out on a Friday
Since there’s nowhere else to ask this, Will how are you and Johnny D handling the passing of Mr. Hockey?