Insta-Bragging: What Are We Doing So Wrong On Instagram

Tired as I always seem to feel, I lay on my bed and try to enjoy social media, like anyone of you would. Not as if it is a job I have to do. I start scrolling on my Instagram, although I had no intention to. Just to see who’s bragging on Instagram?

Are you Bragging on Instagram?

I know from a few dozen posts who is on holiday and where, and how they are spending their days there, who lost weight and who got fat, who is single and who isn’t, who bought a car, new running shoes, finished a marathon or got married.

I should be happy for them, right?

Well, I’m not.

I realized it made me feel insecure, depressed, stressed out and overall, feeling worthless.

Damn you Instagram, because you made people addicted to you and now they are into such a deep relationship with you, they don’t even dare to live for more than a couple of hours and not telling everything about how they spent their time.

I’m not happy, nor do I enjoy the time spent staring at my screen. I am jealous. I envy every breath of air from those foreign lands, each sun ray that didn’t touch my skin. Damn you Instagram!

It’s not about the oversharing. It’s over bragging, about everything.

The thin line between sharing and bragging (or should I call it Insta-bragging?)

I once heard this “If you are using an online service for free, then you are the product being sold”.

Damn it, each time I realise I’m spending my life on social media, not being paid for it, I feel like a product.

I spend more time to check my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pages, etc., than I use to talk to real people, in real life. People I know. But I never seem to forget to snap something for “my story/day”, for people I haven’t talk in years maybe.

And then I remember that most people are the same. The same as I am, wanting to share and having not so many people to share it with.

That’s because people are made to share with others.

Sharing experiences is one of the most basic needs of ours.

Now, bragging is a thing we all adore doing, but nobody ever admits to doing it. Yes, that random pic in an exotic country is bragging. Or a mirror selfie. Or your new boyfriend. I did it, probably will do it again. The question is why?

Firstly, it is the need to share. I get that. But for me, I feel that delivering too much leads to bragging. Probably because I used to be too much into sharing, made me now more protective of my personal life.

Secondly, because we grew to be so lonely in our lives, we have not so many people to share things with, in real life.

So we reach out into the unknown. Sharing it with anyone who is willing to pay for it with their time. If this isn’t desperate, I don’t know what is.

Maybe it’s not bragging, but it’s a cry for help.

Damn you Instagram. A love and hate relationship.

It’s not just you, or me, it’s everyone. Growing up, being told we are “special”, that we can be anything we want, get everything we wish for. Took our degrees, and realized it was all bullshit. Hello, “heaven”.

This is not a generation of patience.

Everything needs to happen in an instant, or we don’t want it. Because we need instant enjoyment, when we want it, and how we want it.

People can’t be like that. People are not instant. Computers are. Instagram is.

Post a pic and see how your likes instantly grow, as well as your dopamine levels. Whoever determines which addictions are legal and which are not, is an idiot.

We have a more intimate relationship with our Instagram, than with probably any human being. Ok, probably I’m taking this too far. Some prefer to swipe left or right. But in some moments, I think it’s true.

In the end, we are more connected, know more details about everyone’s life than ever before, and somehow we managed to get rid of that very thing which we crave the most and makes us human: human interaction. Welcome to the matrix.

Wake up. Don’t sell yourself. Don’t cross the line.

I’m going to confess something big.

I write my ideas here, so I can remember them. I write them because I need to remember. I write for myself.

I need always to remember not to sell myself, not to fall asleep in the timeless Instagram feed.

I’m not the product.

Having a more defined line in my head about sharing helps in deciding what goes online and what stays offline.

The break is over. Instagram is waiting for you.