#tbt to tbh & rates

     Created in 2010, Instagram has been the Myspace of Gen Z. Being one of the top social media apps, my generation was the first to experience this "new and improved" Facebook that was accustomed to our age group. I was in fourth grade (2011) when I made my Instagram account. It was the first social media app I owned and was a place for me to explore cyberspace while familiarizing myself with what would become my future. Over time, this app has gone through a major "glo up"; what was once a rigid, grey, brown, and blue layout with a constricting, square frame was now a bright purple, pink, orange gradient with live-streaming and story options. To say the least, I feel as if my Instagramming ways evolved with the app itself.

     As we are coming upon Instagram's 8th birthday, I can reflect on my past ways. Though my feed is not aesthetically pleasing as some, my "Instagram game" has improved tremendously over the seven years I have owned my account (thank goodness). One dark phase of Instagram occurred in 2012-2013 that I can remember very vividly. It was during this time that posting "tbhs (to be honest) and rates" or an occasional "tbr (to be rude)" was the current trend. I will admit; I remember posting these types of photos so I could keep myself busy when I was bored and had nothing else to do. Not only that, my little fingers would scroll through my timeline, double tapping each tbh and rate picture that came up on my feed. And my heart would flutter anytime a notification came up on my iPod home screen, alerting me of a comment on my recent picture, full of generic adjectives and compliments telling me how nice, pretty, and funny I was. Though I stopped posting pictures like this when I got to middle school, I would still like other people's posts so they would give me a tbh or rate; I got the same feeling in my stomach.

     Looking back into that period of social media history, I cannot help but wonder how desperate we must have been. How desperate for attention, that we would get excited about a fake and insincere compliment delivered through a screen. How desperate for reassurance, that we would produce artificial comments for the sole possibility that we might get compliments in return. How desperate to be connected with others, as we develop relationships through a "request to follow" button. Though the app itself the app itself or the trends it promotes have changed over time, these messages have stayed the same.

     Social media as a whole is a giant positive feedback mechanism or the enhancement or amplification of an effect by its own influence on the process that gives rise to it. For example, however, a mother in labor releases oxytocin to cause the uterus to contract, which then signals the pituitary gland to secrete more oxytocin, which amplifies the strength of contractions and ultimately leads to the birth of the baby. Contrary to its name, this mechanism is quite depressing in terms of Instagram. Though the birth of a baby is much more serious and important than Instagram, the ideas behind it are the same. We become insecure and seek artificial comments and likes from others to satisfy our need for attention, ultimately causing us to crave and become addicted to this type of reassurance and deepening our hole of self-esteem issues, until we are hollowed out and eaten alive by our own insecurities. A simple tbh may seem insignificant and innocent; however, each fake compliment you give or receive feeds into this inevitably destructive cycle.