Instagram will never be casual

By Mrinalini Keskar ‘22

From the moment Instagram began gaining popularity after its launch in 2010, its billions of users have yearned after curating the perfect Instagram “feed.” 

Over the years, Instagram trends have come and gone, but what is most prominent at the moment for teenagers is the creation of a “casual” Instagram feed. This trend involves users posting without care for likes, follows, aesthetic purposes, or how their posts are generally perceived. However, with Instagram’s culture of validation - through the form of likes, follows, and traction - posting completely casually is almost impossible.  

The trend of casual Instagram posts rose to fame on popular short-video sharing app TikTok. With the song “Bang Bang Bang Bang” by SohoDolls playing in the background, users shared what they would post if they weren’t scared to post on social media. Often, they would share a caption urging viewers to normalize casual posting. 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJqCPRrS/ 

For many, young, impressionable teens, Instagram has created a space where users are bent on creating the impression that “if their feeds are perfect, their lives are perfect.” A casual Instagram feed is a form of rebellion against the insecurity off which Instagram thrives. 

Catlin Gabel School (CGS) junior Greta Bogdanski, who had amassed over 800 followers on her Instagram account, felt so suffocated by Instagram’s unwritten rules that she decided to start fresh with a new account only accessible to her close friends and family. 

“I feel like when I first got my account, I was super worried about likes and followers, and so I ended up with a lot of [followers] on my account who I just didn’t really know, so then I was just afraid to post because I didn’t know the people who were going to see it,” Bogdanski said. 

She said that with a smaller Instagram account, posting “feels better because I’ll get 10 likes, but who cares? They’re my actual friends.” 

While before, Bogdanski felt pressured to post and gain followers, she now posts “just if I think a picture is cool. I feel like that’s what Instagram’s for, and we’ve just kinda strayed so far away from that.”

A picture is worth a thousand words, and Instagram has made it possible for users to share the highlights of their lives through the use of a perfectly curated feed.

However, scrolling for hours through the highlights of others’ lives can lead to social media “Fear of Missing Out,” or FOMO. Studies have shown that Instagram and other social media platforms have led to increased rates of teenage anxiety and depression. 

This is where “casual” Instagram feeds come in. 

But if posting unfiltered and effortlessly becomes a trend, can Instagram ever be truly “casual”?

TikTok user Aaron Williams  (@aaronwllams) argues no. “Casual instagram is treated like a new aesthetic; it is just another futile attempt at being perceived as cool and effortless,” he said in response to the casual Instagram trend on TikTok. 

What Williams was getting at is that once casual posting is a trend, it is no longer casual. It’s no longer breaking Instagram’s norms of posting, because it has become the new norm. 

In the end, there is nothing wrong with posting for validation, attention, and following trends. However, if one wishes to break away from the anxiety that is caused by social media, they should feel comfortable posting on social media without validation. There’s no need to “normalize” casual posting; if you want to post casually, then post casually.