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Instagram may be relatively new in the grand scheme of things, but is it ushering in an era of old school excess? Matthew Gonzales warns of the dangers of taking the filtered at face value

words by Matthew GONZALEZ

Without wanting to sound egotistical, I think I can say that I have a pretty good life. I was able to move from Los Angeles to the UK so I could pursue a career as a Savile Row tailor. From that, I’ve been able to make a living which allows me to slowly save up to buy a house, go out for the occasional after work drink, spring for a nice meal every once and a while and even book the odd holiday. 

So why is it that, even with all I have, it only takes a few minutes of scrolling through Instagram to make my life feel suddenly inadequate? The truth is social media has completely changed our perception of what is actually valuable in life and I think it’s time that we recognise it. 

I’m sure many of you already know what I am talking about. Aside from friends and family, most of us are probably following some cool kid, influencer or celebrity whose IG feed is filled with images that put our lives to shame. There is no way most of us could seemingly travel around the world, hopping between five star hotel suites for half the year, but if you look at certain corners of Instagram, it feels almost commonplace.

On top of that, there are all the posts about frequenting Michelin-starred restaurants, night clubs, cars, clothing, watches and anything else that costs a small fortune to buy. Most of us can only imagine what getting these things for ourselves would be like because with the sums involved it means it’s just unrealistic. 

The problem is that the more we see of it, the more we start wanting it for ourselves. Ironically though, one of the main reasons we desire these things is because they’re unattainable. So the closest we can get to that kind of lifestyle is by editing our own. As a consequence we end up posting photos that are curated versions of ourselves with the intention of not only getting likes from our friends but also, and sometimes more importantly, from people we have never met before. We’ve become obsessed with proving to the world that we’re ‘living our best lives’ even though I am pretty sure that the rest of the world doesn’t actually care.

Surprisingly enough it’s not the photos alone that have changed our perspective so dramatically. It’s actually the hashtags that have done a lot of the work. For example, if you saw a photo of a young attractive couple sitting at the edge of an infinity pool in some resort in the Maldives you might be a little jealous that it is them and not you but you would move on with your life. 

‘The problem is that the more we see of it, the more we start wanting it for ourselves. Ironically though, one of the main reasons we desire these things is because they’re unattainable. So the closest we can get to that kind of lifestyle is by editing our own.’

However, once we start linking those kinds of images with hashtags like #lifegoals or whatever else people think up to humble brag about their lives we subconsciously use those pairings as metrics on which we judge our own lives. We start to unknowingly ask ourselves “If they have already achieved their ‘life goals’ why haven’t I?” 

In many ways Instagram has re-popularised the late 19th century notion of conspicuous consumption where the upper classes would show off their wealth by spending extravagantly on everything. It was an era of garish consumerism that placed value on vanity instead of substance. While it may not be as ostentatious today, there are plenty of examples of conspicuous consumption everywhere in modern life. 

Every time we post a photo because we want people to see the ultra cool place we’re at we are participating in a conspicuous lifestyle. Posed photos that are meant to appear candid and edited ones that make normal life more aesthetically pleasing all reinforce the narrative that there is only value in vanity.

There is nothing wrong with the fact that social media allows us to take a look at how some people live their extravagant lives. For one, it’s interesting to see but, it’s important to remember that every one of those glossy images has been just as carefully selected, edited and captioned as we do with our own photos. 

With that in mind, it might be worth considering the next time you are out doing something ‘gramable’ that, instead of instantly grabbing your phone, take a second to enjoy whatever it is that you are doing, because by simply being present in that moment you will get a lot more out of life then a few likes. MG