Insta-cism?

I was recently at a friends birthday party and casually looked around the room in horror to see that every single one of my eighteen girlfriends was either taking a photo on their iPhone, checking each one of us in to “Best night eva” or thinking of a catchy caption to accommodate their latest Instagram upload.

As an exclusive application to the iPhone, I am going to try and defend my non-participation of Instagram to deep values and not wanting to participate in yet another social media tool, however the simple truth is that my HTC is not accommodating to the iPhone app. Admitting this truth, does not dismay from the horror I experienced when realising the self absorption of my group of friends.

As the night went on, we were gossiping and laughing and the flashes continued. I began thinking of why people feel the need to upload every aspect of their life onto the internet (and yes, I do appreciate the irony of this as I write this on a blog). The issue finally found its way into conversation and as I, perhaps condescendingly, declared “Instagram encourages narcissism, which is why I don’t want to support it”. I was confronted with what some would consider a lynch squad wanting to take down this horrible witch who spoke so badly about what they fondly call “Insta”.

Wikipedia (who is quickly becoming my best friend) defines narcissism in several ways; specific to the individual it describes traits of egoism, vanity, conceit and selfishness, while applied to a social group it denotes elitism. In psychology, ‘narcissism’ is used to describe both normal self-love and unhealthy self-absorption due to a disturbance in the sense of self.

Taking those definitions, I am not sure (or rather am hoping) that they do not apply to my group of girlfriends. Instagram does encourage a degree of vanity and conceit that I deem unacceptable and I am sure that without the technologies like Instagram, my friends would never feel compelled to document their lives on an iPhone app. My grievances could have stopped here but following this Saturday night of paparazzi that is, my Insta using friends, it followed me to breakfast the next morning.

Trying out a new local café with four girlfriends we were following the usual conventions of a Sunday morning breakfast. Who went home with who, who was wearing what, and which clubs sucked while others rocked. I was enjoying my company until our first round of coffees came. As the soy lattes and short macs came to the table, out came the iPhones and next thing I knew, my table was swarmed by paparazzi. Flashes popping left right and centre, and the words exclaimed from my friends mouth “Oh my god, I have to Insta this!”.

While I appreciate the concept of nurturing memories and seeing what your friends are up to, I just haven’t come to terms to doing it myself. I relish my Sunday morning breakfast dates with my girlfriends, filled with conversation, gossip and laughter and where iPhone use is strictly prohibited. When did it become okay to take pictures in restaurants with flashes and bore your company into ordering two more coffees while you are uploading a photo of your ‘perfect eggs benny’?

As an aspiring communications professional, I should be eating all of this new media right up. Facebook and Twitter have certainly already developed an ‘unhealthy self-absorption’ in me, that as the youngest of four girls, I really didn’t need. So perhaps my dislike of Instragram is purely a self-preservation technique before I become the complete definition of narcissist.

Please note: At the time of this post, Instagram remained exclusive to iPhone, now that Android are on board, it should be duly noted that I am yet to give in!