Antithesis Instagram users have switched from posting strictly curated photos to more casual content
to Aesthetic
O
ver the past couple months, Palo Alto students, and teenagers alike, have been taking a new approach to one of the biggest social media platforms— Instagram. This app has been known to have a culture of pressuring users to present “picture-perfect” versions of themselves. Some of the common unwritten social rules include don’t post frequently, make sure all your photos are cohesive and keep captions brief. However, some students have started showing uniqueness by posting more casually and using the app without following the social norms. Up until recently, many Paly students have felt restricted while using Instagram. The social media app’s social pressures have caused students to be more aware of their posting habits and activities on Instagram. Senior Tessa Ehrlich first became aware of these “rules” when she joined the app in middle school. “A friend of mine told me that people only post once a week max,” Ehrlich said. “I was annoyed because I had all these photos I thought were so cool but had nowhere to put, and I wanted all my friends to see them. But to avoid seeming annoying, I listened to her and posted maybe once a week.” Ehrlich’s experience is a very common one; because all her peers were following these “rules,” Ehrlich had to align with the norms of Instagram, creating even more pressure. Fellow senior Jeremy Huang also felt affected by the pressures of the app. “For the first week I had Instagram, I posted whatever I wanted,” Huang said. “Later, I felt pressured to not do that anymore, so I started to post
only when I had a ‘real’ event to post about.” While many people felt the expectations to post a specific type of content, senior Sydney Pang describes the pressure she felt to edit her posts on popular editing applications, such as VSCO, to maintain an aesthetically pleasing feed. “I vividly remember going through the VSCO C4 filter phase that was pretty common at the time,” Pang said. “My oversaturated photos sought to match those I saw on the accounts of influencers I followed.” Many Palo Alto teens have started to ignore these unwritten rules to share strictly “aes-
