THE CODEIG

The world has moved very much into a digital space, especially over the last two years or so, as the covid crisis has forced people to stay at home more than they used to. During lockdown, people used Instagram and other social media platforms to virtue signal and to show support for those who needed it, but they also used to keep themselves sane in a somewhat crazy world.

However, Instagram may not be the right place to go if you want to maintain the integrity of your mental health. And yet, it currently is one of the most popular apps in the entire world.

Little by little, Instagram (with TikTok following) has become the place where things are happening these days. It is the moment, the -ism, the hashtag, as teens today would say. In other words, it’s the “it”.

Even though it may seem that IG is the wild west, where anything and everything can happen, at a closer analysis, or, better said, when looking at it from a distance, one can for sure notice that Instagram is not actually such a free space and that it abides by very serious rules. These rules are only in part the feared algorithm people talk about, the algorithm that makes small businesses crumble, hides certain viewpoints, and makes creative people feel bad.

The more interesting rules of Instagram are those that don’t go so quickly noticed, the pecking order, the unsaid regulations, and the taboo standards. For example, one of these rules is that in order to be of any value on IG, you have to have more followers than people you yourself follow. The larger the gap between followers and followed accounts, the higher the social status. For example, you are OK if you follow 1000 accounts but have 7000 followers (even though that’s not much), but if you don’t follow anyone and have 40 million followers, then you are at the top of the hill.

Another interesting rule of Instagram is the one that revolves around sexual market value. Instagram, when it comes to personal accounts, is, like anything in life, all about trading up. What this means is that the many hot people of Insta will only follow only people who are hotter than them; and that goes all the way to the top. When looking at this, one can’t help but notice that, despite any politically correct thing we are being told to say, conventional beauty is still the criterion people go by when they follow someone for their looks. People who have lots of followers usually feel smug and self-sufficient, but then again, they did earn something for nothing (well, that’s what it looks like, but that doesn’t make it true) and they are approved by the global tribe for being conventional, having desirable sexual markers and being overall of a high sexual status. The lizard brain feels good, and it’s hard to fight it.

Social media has become so odd because it combines everything, the good and the bad. There are great pictures of travel destinations, it is a wonderful way for people to discover art and artists and to stay in touch with the activity of their favorite brands, but it is also a place filled with smugness, ostracization, anger and all that is in between. Social media also features the entire range, from good to bad of it can be said so, of the same thing. It has great motivational accounts and inspiration-filled boards, but also toxic positivity and crazy hustle culture. It really is not a realistic meeting place. Or maybe it is; who can tell anymore?

The bottom line is that social media, mostly through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have rewired the brains of an entire generation. What is even more interesting is that, while it may seem that the direction in which social media is taking us is the only direction, in actuality, things are not exactly like that. For example, while Westerners get to see twerking teens in their TT feeds, Chinese kids see accomplishments, achievements, and a developing society, instead of a decaying one. Speaking of China, the giant country has even limited by law the number of time kids can play computer games. Other countries, such as Poland, have taken measures against the problems caused by social media. It’s a sad thing to live in a world where the state imposes these things.

Social media as a whole, and Instagram in particular, is guilty of creating a digital world that has little to do with the real world. Social media, it can be said, is beneficial when it is used as an extension of everyday life. If you are organizing an event, sharing information on social media makes it more accessible; if you are an artist or have a brand, letting people know about your latest work can help you with exposure and sales. However, these days, most of it is cheap (actually, sometimes extremely expensive) manufacturing of a fake life. People rent sets that look like private planes in order to impress others; they pretend to be deep when they want to be sexy, they laugh at bad jokes told by hot people (especially at those that indicate how amazing they are) and they even use social media as a type of religious or political instrument. In the eventuality of an important deemed important enough but still manageable, people post when they’re told, what they’re told, and rejecting these rules can get people in serious trouble.

Instagram is also a highly social space, where every piece of activity can (and potentially will) be interpreted: when you post, what you post, what you comment, why you comment, why you like in a row, why you follow someone, etc. People follow and then unfollow in the hope that they will get a new follower, but that they will maintain an advantage, and so on. In private groups, people don’t use words like “followers”, but rather write “fo110w**r$”, because they know that even their private messages are scanned and that they will be sanctioned if the “holy” algorithm thinks they just want to gain followers. Doesn’t this look like something from The Matrix?

Instagram users get depressed because everything seems either perfect or fun for others. People feel lonely when they see other people’s group photos. Everyone is stunned at the amount of traveling people with questionable jobs do around the world, especially to places that cost a fortune to visit.

Sometimes, people lash out or complain on Instagram, some- times even about Instagram. Some users simply break the fourth wall and put out there to the best of their abilities all their frustrations and anger. They complain about the hot girls not looking at them, their subscribers not engaging, and their daily lives. This is very sad, but it also acts as a reminder that those who are behind the screens are actually human beings with lives, thoughts, and, something that we too rarely see these days, authentic feelings.