GIRLS LIKE US
girls like us We are the girls who are guilty of the 20 snapchats on our story from the night before, the ones who never do anything without taking a picture. We are the girls who never miss out on the opportunity for a selfie, the ones who spend hours choosing which one to upload. We are the ones who are seeing life passing us by because were too busy trying to capture a moment lost through the camera lens of our phones. We are the girls who feel the pressure to present our lives through social media, the ones hoping it meets societys expectations. This zine is dedicated to us, the girls like us.
If youdidn’t post it didn’t happen We have grown into an age of self-obsessed, digitally addicted, materialistic monsters with a desire to garner for public approval. Will starve for likes. Our brag culture has resulted in us growing up in as generation that believes; what’s the point of being happy if you’re not going to post it? Going out without uploading a Snapchat story or Instagram post? Just inconceivable, if you didn’t post, it didn’t happen. It has become almost a new art form to hold your coffee cup on that awkward wrist snapping angle, showing off the cup as well as your new nails, your designer watch and don’t forget the aesthetically pleasing backdrop. All in order to capture that perfect shot (when in fact it’s not even our coffee cup anyway we took it off a friend to make it look like we can afford to buy a Starbucks every day). We are living to create these perfect yet fake personas.
Sometimes I wonder how we all would cope if we lost all form of social media for a day. How would we survive not being able to show off the world how we have spent our night drinking vodka from the bottle in VIP, or how we have just checked in to a 5 star hotel in Marbella? Sometimes I wonder, do we only do things just because they will look good on a photo and will get us a lot of likes? Do we go on a night out just so we can post new material to prove to our Instagram followers we are in fact a social butterfly who is having a good time? Do we go out for dinner to an expensive restaurants only to let our food go cold whist rearranging our cocktails and tapas for the perfect shot; and then waiting for exactly 5pm to post? (If you didn’t know this is Instagram prime time, almost guaranteed to gain more likes). We have in fact become obsessed with ourselves the way we look and the way we are perceived. It is hilarious why has Facebook introduced a ‘take profile photo’ option when clicking to change profile picture. Are you joking? Like anyone is just going to take one photo. Do you not realise we have to take 20 test shots, try 6 different filters, use an editing app and then double check with a friend the one we chose is ok. All this for the fussy comments from our friends (well…are they our friends I can’t remember the last time I spoke to one of these girls face to face) “You look so flawless xxx”, “Yeah that’s because I used the airbrush tool.” Is social media making us lonelier? Are we substituting friendships and relationships for likes? Who cares how many Facebook friends you have if you have no real ones? Who cares how many likes you get on Instagram if no one really likes you? You can’t pay your rent with Facebook likes or Instagram followers. Attention isn’t going to grant you your dream job and neither will social approval. We try to create a better version of ourselves and I can guess it’s usually very far from the truth. We need to realise we aren’t fooling anyone, only ourselves. If you didn’t post, the real truth is it’s probably because you we’re in fact having too much fun to be worried about sending a Snapchat of it to your “friends”.
MY BATTERY IS DYING AND SO IS MY HEART
l e m e ik l e m e k i l e m e k i l e m
k i l e m e k i l e m e k i l e m e k i l e
THEIR OPINION WILL NOT DEFINE ME
I DO NOT EXIST TO PLEASE STRANGERS
m w o l l o f o l l o f e m w o l l fo l fo
f e m e m w o o l l o f e m e m w o l l o
I WON’T BE JUDGED BY SOCIAL MEDIA
I DON’T NEED LIKES TO BE ACCEPTED
m t p e c c e m t p e c e c c a e m t
a e m t p e c c a e m t p e c c a e m
The Unwri t ten rules of Instagram
1.
Instaworthy?
First is first, just sit back and take a minuete and think, is my pic really Instagram worthy? Thinking of posting a snap of your kale smoothie? Well if this is an event you think is worthy enough for your insta then the truth of the matter is you need to get out more. How about a selfie? The thing is no one likes a show off, have a look back at your ratio of selfie’s to scenery, if the selfie wins then the answer is don’t post.
2.
planning the caption
Right that’s the pic chosen, it’s now time to decide on the caption. Maybe a song lyric? This may be seen as uncool but everyone loves it really, just don’t choose an annoying song you don’t want everyone hating you for having an awful tune in their heads all day. If the song lyric isn’t for you, careful planning is key. Don’t feel silly searching google for Instagram captions, we all do it, just remember don’t overload with hashtags- that’s so 2013. If all else fails an emoji is always a subtle winner.
3.
timing is everything
Straight to the point, do not under any circumstances post anything past midnight this is literally Instagram suicide (unless you want 0 likes then I suppose great go ahead!) You need to look at peak times in the day 5pm usually works wonders for your like count. What day of the week? You have the best snap captured from your night out at the weekend and you’re dying to post, the answer is don’t! Wednesday is the day.
4.
like my insta?
This is sometimes a bit embarrassing but we don’t really care. We finally post our picture. And there it goes, that text we all hate getting but don’t mind sending ‘will you like my pic babe xxx’. You get the friends that are straight on it who always have your back but then there’s the others. These ‘friends’ are the ones who are probably just jealous, you don’t need them you don’t want that negativity in your life anyway. The other debate is do we like our own pic to bump up the likes? The answer is yes, no one will notice.
5.
what sin did i commit?
We are all guilty of checking our screens every 30 seconds counting up the likes until it gets to that heart-breaking moment. An hour after we’ve posted that perfectly captioned and edited photo we thought would gain us a whole load of attention it seems we have merely reached a disappointing 30 likes, now what? Do we deal with the embarrassment and frantically text a few more friends begging for a like? Or is that it? Do we surrender peacefully and click delete.
I CAN NOW SEE I have become my own worst enemy. My mind is tangled and distorted, wrapped up in a digital world. My hands become sweaty and a sense of panic rushes through my body if one of them is not grasping desperately onto my iPhone. From the second my eyelids peel open I can feel the glare almost blinding me, checking updates that I have missed out on throughout the dark hours. As I scroll my eyes become less sensitive to the light. I can now see. The world’s perfect lives before me, it’s happening again. Why can I not live your life? My life I so boring and dull. I want your body and your smile and your hair. I want your family and your lifestyle. Jealousy runs deep through my mind. I am no longer happy with who I am, I crave your life. What I do not know is your life isn’t all that great, what I see of it is snapshots, laid out in a grid of squares. You only show me the best parts, the parts that are nice to see. You create an image you want everyone to believe, but not me. I can now see.
JonBurgerman ‘The girls i’ve seen on Tumblr’
Jon’s illuminous pen to paper illustrations .are an honest exploration, a visual discussion of a cultural trend. His project involves drawing and reposting eccentric & colourful images of girls he’s seen on Tumblr and then posting them back on the platform, creating a cycle of internet content. He focuses on a mix of models, girls in adverts, celebrities, and self-taken shots all that borrow the same visual language from each other and hanker for the lingering gaze of the viewer. Jon thinks that these days fashion ads look like amateur photos and amateur We spoke with Jon Burgerman, UK born photos look like fashion ads the gap NYC based contemporary artist, about the between the two are becoming smaller ‘Tumblr girl’ phenomenon which led him to as the strive for perfection gets stronger. create his project ‘Girls I’ve seen on Tumblr’. At the core of every one of us we crave the desire to be accepted. Fulfilment of this desire has never being easier than it has to us. We are the Tumblr girls. Our hair can be long or short, but it has to be perfectly styled. We can wear as much make-up as we want but the more we wear the more attention we will receive. We can be tanned and blonde and conventionally pretty or we can have a bit of grit about us. We are the girls dedicated to becoming an admired digital object.
“I just wanted to contribute something positive to the discussion and enforce the idea that we don’t have to hold ourselves up to an idolised version of what a person should look like”
He feels he really reflects on the images of the girls through drawing them. “You see this is what happens when you draw. When you’re drawing your thinking, lots of things are going on all at once in your head, in your mind, in your hand.” He wanted his illustrations to provoke an authentic discussion about how women embody themselves through social media. He desired to get people talking about the issue of self-obsession and the pressure to be a better version of ourselves, the pressure that stems from social platforms. “I just wanted to contribute something positive to the discussion and enforce the idea that we don’t have to hold ourselves up to an idolised version of what a person should look like”. As he spoke I found myself fascinated by him and endeared into to hear a male’s perspective on us women as I feel this is something we never really get an honest serious opinion on. “Social media for a lot of women is an online popularity contest with scores (likes)” Jon pointed out, he was right. We post for popularity. He emphasized that social media is like TV or books in the sense that that it’s not the format that’s good or bad but it’s how people decide to use them. After our chat and a deeper look into Jon’s work I feel I really understood what he was trying to do, which was show us we can be happy with who we are and we don’t need to conform to what we think we should be. I picked out some of my favourite illustrations and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
Shh I shouldn’t
have
told you
that...
“I edit every single picture I post on Instagram, I make my waist smaller and my boobs bigger. I normally make my teeth whiter too�
“In a bar I order the cocktail I think will look the nicest for my Snapchat, who cares what it tastes like if it looks good�
“If a picture I want to post to my Instagram doesn’t match my colour theme I would rather just not upload it than it ruin my theme”
“If it wasn’t for Twitter I would have absolutlely no clue what is going on in the world,who needs to watch the news”
“I once called a girl at a party by her Instagram name, turns out it wasn’t her name at all it was a joke with her friends, I couldn’t have felt more stupid if I tried”
PLAYLIST
PLAYLIST 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
G- Eazy- Tumblr girls M.I.A - Bad girls Kelis-Bossy Iggy Azelia- Fancy Gwen Stefani- Rich girl Alicia Keys- Superwoman Pink- Perfect
dictionary
Wannabe tumblr girls girls who try too hard to look either rich, grunge, smart, or better than you Instagram bae Someone who likes all your Instagram pictures and gives you shoutouts and acts like you’re a couple over Instagram. Social Media Whore This person usually becomes aroused almost sexually by seeing or hearing themselves or about themselves on social media websites. Instafamous A person who’s famous on Instagram because they have thousands of followers. Person is usually a pretty girl who posts a thousand pictures of her face or whatever food she’s eating.