Blog #8 - Kelli Grimm

I would say the technology that has been the most influential to my life are the social media apps on my phone. To be more specific, Instagram has me embarrassingly obsessed. While the positive aspects of the app such as staying connected- or literally knowing what people are doing/feeling constantly, getting inspiration from beauty gurus or the latest fitness page, meeting new people, and keeping up with the latest celeb drama keep me constantly checking the app… it has had negative impacts on me as well. Everyone knows that your Instagram feed is you putting out the best version of yourself and appears to be flooded with people who live perfect lives. In reality, the feeds are filled with filtered images (the best one of the 20+ pictures that were taken to get each post), edited with the latest app, and accompanied by a whitty caption to add some personality. I used to get caught up with making sure I was putting out consistent content ~to stay relevant~ that people liked so I could gain followers and that people literally “liked” me. I wanted my life to look perfect too and it was easy to fool my followers into believing anything I wanted them to think about me. This lead me down a rather dark path, my self-worth became dependent on how many likes I could get on my pictures and while I will admit I had a decent following, this made me obsessed with checking Instagram. My relationships in real life were impacted because the opinions of those that really cared about me were overshadowed by what Instagram had to say. Eventually, I realized what I was doing and deleted the app from my phone because that wasn’t who I wanted to be. After a few months I redownloaded the app.

Now, I still check the app (still probably too often) but my posts are very slim and I now tend to focus more on the content other people are putting out. This aspect of the app shows how influential techno-science is on our culture. I have become over observant of trends through Instagram. The latest trend sweeping the nation is the fitness trend, everyone has become a gym rat all of a sudden with their own fitness page to inspire others (or is it to show off their toned bodies? Idk, that’s not for me to decide). I also follow a large handful of lifestyle bloggers (with 100K+ followers) who I have noticed more and more posting similar content as far as brand/product promotion, latest fashion trends, and services. With a following as large as they have, these bloggers can have a large influence on the trends of our culture and the ways in which “Instagrammers” produce content.