why my instagram is similar to a broadway performance
My hands are clammy and I feel a wave of excitement mixed in with intense nausea come over me. I hear chatter in the crowd slowly dwindle as the lights go down. I take a large breath, the type you hold for 10 and release for 10. With slight caution, I take to center stage. Or, in other words, I publish that post.
Ah. The theater days. I thought they would end after my high school performance of Fiddler On the Roof, but alas they will continue as long as I am subject to any social media platform.
What about social media is similar to performing on stage? For one, there is always an overenthusiastic aunt. Whether she is screaming your name after your one line, or commenting on every Facebook status you post. But in all seriousness, how has social media strayed from a website of connections to a platform for performances?
For one, when we formulate a post to social media, it is often never to please ourselves, but to please and show off to others, similar to performance. This is often referred to as something called “success theater” which is when people tend to only show the best sides of themselves on social media. No one enters stage without fixing their costume or warming up their voice, and you could say the same about an Instagram post.
Although performing can be fun and exhilarating, it can also take a toll on your mental health. When the ongoing performance of pretending you are something you’re not begins to intertwine into your everyday life, it can begin to alter how you feel about yourself, leading to intense social comparison. These social comparisons can begin to tear you down and even create a sense of envy every time you scroll through a media platform.
One specific part of various social media platforms that heightens the way we perceive others and are perceived, is the story function. It began on Snapchat and has now flooded all forms of social media, recently infecting Twitter. I can’t hate on story functions as I use them more than I post; however, why is this? One main reason people use this to further their social media performance can be because it disappears after 24 hours (barely any commitment to what you are posting) and the pressure is somewhat lighter than the pressure of an entire post. A lot of people like myself use story functions to create a way in which they would like to be perceived, almost like a personal brand, without the effort of posting all the time. Instead of a 2 hour show that you rehearse for, it is more similar to a 10-minute improv skit.
Similar to a theater performance, social media highlights the good and the ugly is seen as a simple mishap, or is quickly forgotten about/deleted. The show must go on. However, treating social media like a performance can be tiring, stressful and oftentimes ruins the best parts of life: being candid.