Instagram is guilty of providing a hub for photos of cute puppies, a morning latte and user’s bodies. A hybrid of Twitter and Photobucket, Instagram provides followers with snapshots of everyday life, and some experts fear there’s TMI going on.
According to Goal Auzeen Saedi’s Psychology Today blog post “Millenial Media: The media saturated generation Y,”young people are guilty of showing off more than just their pets and best friends. Auzeen Saedi writes a disturbing trend has popped up: self-objectification and exploitation. Photos of abs, biceps, boobs and butts are collaged on Instagram.
Students said they are familiar with this display. Ashley Kaldhusdal, freshman health science major, said one of the people she follows is constantly showing off her appearance.
“There’s this girl that is obsessed with her body,” Kaldhusdal said. “There’s people that are obsessed with working out and they post their progress. I think it’s weird.”
According to Instagram’s terms of use, these bodily attention-seeking photos are not permitted on the site. In fact, it’s right up at the top of the list as regulation number two.
“You may not post violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content via the Service.”
So what should students post instead of their smoking bodies? Students said they mostly post things they find funny, interesting, or are part of their social lives.
“I’ll usually post if I see something cool or pretty pictures of campus or pictures of me and my boyfriend,” Kylee Laffoon, junior health science major, said. “I try not to post pictures of stupid things like food. Everybody posts pictures of food.”
Some students said they have actually not come across this body bombardment.
Audrey Mearns, junior communication major, said if she does encounter body-focused photos, it’s to convey a sense of lifestyle rather than a call for attractive attention.
“(They’re) showing off lifestyles, kind of ‘this is how I live,’” Mearns said. “The people that I hang out with don’t do that (show off their bodies) but people probably do. I just haven’t seen it.”
Kaldhusdal, Laffoon, and Mearns said they are on Instagram at least weekly, sometimes more. While these students post pictures of animals, Boise State campus and their friends, all three agreed they just posted images which were interesting
to them.
Their bodies were not on the list. However, for other students, it tops their list.
Is this an epidemic? For Boise State students, bodily exploitation may not be such a large Instagram issue.
