Social Media Is the New Way to Scrapbook
Instagram was once a place of filters and mediation—posting the perfect selfie with the perfect outfit or lighting. Now, Instagram is a place of nonchalance and allowing your personality to overrule aesthetics. It is as if we have returned to the period when social media was new to us all, a time when pressures for an influential feed had not yet set in. My TikTok “For You page” is full of people displaying the highlights of their month, and my Instagram is bloated by carousels of my following making the mundane presentable.
In the classic carousel “photo dump,” you can choose to post a round-up of images all at once. While this initially may seem carefree, there is an assessment of what photos to include in your carousel, and more importantly—which image to choose first. These mini-selections can be seen as individual collections as there tends to be a theme given to any carousel.
Perhaps they are just photos you have taken recently that make you smile; maybe they are all photographs taken on the same day or photos of the same event that you wanted to tie together rather than post individually. Photos of your fave food, selfies, silly little memes, or a collection of them all. Let’s admit it, we still want to post the image of the plate of food that looks the prettiest, or the sunset photo where the lighting looks the brightest. It is a craft to select and highlight even the most mundane imagery.
In this regard, social media seems to be the new way for users to scrapbook, creating a digital diary online for not just our followers to see, but also as a way to store and hoard memories. I use the word “scrapbook” intentionally because I believe that the practice of posting online is an art, even if it’s a relaxed one. Increasing your social media engagement, or creating a presentable feed while maintaining a sense of nonchalance, is a skill.
It is a common theory in media studies that all imagery is selected and refined, posed to look a particular way to engage a particular audience, whether that is film, advertising, or music videos—social media is no exception. The difference is, we are in control of the media we produce and display on our own platforms. I partake in this selection process, too.
For example, I cannot help but draft my posts before I upload them. I think it's a force of habit. Personally, I prefer the way it looks when my images are spread out. For example, a selfie cannot be next to a selfie. A food picture cannot be above a food picture. These are little rules I have subconsciously created for myself to get the most satisfaction out of looking at my scrapbook of photos:
Selecting filler images, or images used to separate out selfies and group photos, is a deliberate act. Filler images serve to create something visually spatial and prevent the grid from becoming claustrophobic.
My feed has also unintentionally developed a particular colour scheme as summer has struck, creating a golden tone on my skin in the photos of myself and adding natural warm lighting to all of my images. Colour schemes are again, something I think about when choosing the cover photos for my carousels.
It cannot be avoided that online presence is a huge part of all of our identity construction. In Ben Highmore’s studies of the everyday, he notes that whole patterns form as a social collective. Social media is personal to every individual because each account is tied to an identity. You meet someone in a club and nowadays, you do not ask for their number—you ask for their Instagram. You start working with a new colleague and you search for them on Facebook to get an idea of who they are.
Social media isn’t all curated. While carousels are a fun way to round up a collection of images, random and mundane images can be posted individually. Apps like BeReal require you and your followers to upload an image within two minutes of receiving a notification from the app. It celebrates sharing instant moments, grounded in reality, rather than posing and performing.
I believe this has encouraged more people to post instantly on Instagram. For instance, I took a photo of my family enjoying a dinner I had cooked for them the other day. It was slightly random, with no one looking at the camera, and the table was not particularly neat. But it represented something I love and I believed it accurately represented me and my personality. I enjoyed the secrecy of knowing how much this photo meant to me while it was squashed there between other photo dump squares.
TikTok has also become a great platform for allowing people to post authentic content. While we see videos of daily or monthly vlogs, and image dumps similar to Instagram, TikTok provides a space for emptying and sharing thoughts. I think the success of these videos comes from their relatability. TikTok seems to expose the behind-the-scenes of the images we see on Instagram. We enjoy watching videos of nighttime routines and people making their morning coffee because it indicates that social media does not have to be a place of performance. It teaches us to romanticize the little moments and gives us the inspiration to see our own routines as snippets of art.
While at first, I was self-conscious about creating daily vlogs or “day in the life videos,” scared of coming across as trying to be someone I am not, I discovered that I got more compliments than judgment. We use social media because we want to see what our friends are up to and we are nosey enough to scroll through snippets of their day. If anything, you should make photo or video dumps of your life as a way for you to safeguard the days you treasure most.
The artistry of these applications is that they make memories tangible–and if you want to share those moments, share away. Or keep it for yourself and your own personal pleasure. But I believe that more people want to know what the authentic behind-the-scenes of your life looks like than you think.
———
Images: Rosa Benito