This document discusses how people use social media like Instagram to curate and share moments from their lives through photos and videos. While platforms like Instagram allow for communities to form and connections to be made, they may also encourage excessive documentation of life and over-sharing details. Some argue that focusing too much on capturing the perfect photo can take away from truly experiencing the moment. The reality of what people share online may not accurately represent who they are or how they spend their time in reality.

1. Life through the camera lens.
Photo by: Mark JP

2. Photo by: Matthew Pearce

3. If a person who didn't know you scrolled through your
would they get a feel of who you really are?
is communication. But is it genuine communication?
Do the pictures we post resemble our everyday lives?
Screenshot from Instagram with personal permission
from Andrew Menzies

4. Each month 200 million
people use
all over the world.
Photo by: Jason Bachman

5. There are 1.6 BILLION
likes every single day on
.
That’s likes per second.
Photo by: Denis Derisevic

6. “But first, let me take a selfie.”-#selfie, The Chainsmokers
Photo by: Dave Davity

7. "In our age of social networking, the selfie is the new way to
look someone right in the eye and say, ‘Hello, this is me.’”
– James Franco
But is this "me" a real version of "me"?
Photo by: Alex Torres

8. Before you
hang out
with your
friends,
make sure
you take a
selfie of your
perfect hair,
makeup and
outfit.
We live in a society of online personal documentation.
Photo by: Ly Gonzalez

9. "A texting conversation might fall short of
communicating how you are feeling, but a selfie
might make everything clear in an instant.”
– James Franco
Photo by: Kevin Dooley

10. is a complex network of communities.
Using hashtags these communities come together
and are represented by a plethora of photographs.
Photo by: Theo La

11. Photo by: Steven Depolo

12. Photo by: Debbie Tingzon
Wait!
Don't eat your
delicious
cheesecake yet!
Make sure you
take a picture of it
and put it on
.
Dessert is served,
let's spend 5
minutes framing
that cheesecake
perfectly!
15 likes for my
cheesecake, who cares
what it tastes like!

13. Starbucks is the second most popular brand on .
Why take a picture of your Venti Vanilla Bean Frappuccino with
extra whip topped with chocolate chips when you can enjoy your
drink with the person sitting across from you?
Photo by: Ahmad Hashim

14. Beauty gurus and fashion icons have thousands of followers.
When everyone can take a picture of an outfit, everyone can
become a fashion designer.
is inclusive. can support your career.
Photo by: Slipp D Thompson

15. The
Pet
Community.
Photo by: Raquel Cristina Nicola

16. is the modern day photo album.
Why have 3 baby photo albums when you can do it all digitally
AND let the world know how adorable your 1 year old is?
Grandma wants to see baby Theodore? Just open !
Photo by: Ministerio de Saude

17. has changed the
way we come to
know celebrities.
We can now see
behind the scenes
of our favourite
television show or
get up and close
with James
Franco or Aaron
Paul through their
accounts.
Photo by: Lauren Friedman

18. We have the ability
to photograph
anything and
everything.
The reality is
anything and
everything may not
actually be that
important.
The reality is that
we let our
accounts define
ourselves when
truthfully,
barely
represents who we
are or what we
feel.
Photo by: Ray Snaps

19. "Just because the picture looks artsy doesn’t mean you are. You are part of a
fast growing legion of people that have been duped into believing they are
visionaries, auteurs, even. What would your day have been without a picture of
those blueberries? Would you have felt a little less connected to the earth and,
ultimately, yourself? But no, you are popular and people like to feel earthy and
spontaneous by living vicariously through you and your blueberry-picking
adventure."
- Katherine Markovich
Photo by: Kate Elliot

20. Screenshot of “Look Up” public YouTube Video

21. "Are we starting to over-share our personal lives with a bunch of
strangers? Are we sharing a little too much, when our dinner becomes
the subject of our photo shoot? And are these so-called personal
moments no longer real, but only fabrications, or what we want
others to see?”
– Kat Kazeminy
Photo by: Brian Boucheron

22. Stop living photograph to
photograph and start living
moment to moment.
You might not remember those
10 minutes it took you to frame
and filter this photograph, but
you will remember the way the
wet sand feels beneath your
feet.
Photo by: Slipp D Thompson

23. Photo by: Adriana Ceechi

24. • "A Poem That Will Inspire You to Put Down Your Smartphone." Andrea Romano. Mashable.com.
2014. http://mashable.com/2014/05/05/look-up-poem/
• ”An Open Letter to People Who Take Pictures of Food With Instagram." Katherine Markovich.
McSweeney's.com. 2012. http://
www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-people-who-take-pictures-of-food-with-instagram
• "Drew Nipper." Andrew Menzies. Instagram.
http://instagram.com/drew_nipper
• "Instagram: are we over-sharing?" Kat Kazeminy. ProjectQuinn.com. 2013. http://projectquinn.com/
instagram/
• "Instagram Statistics." Nitrogram. 2014. http://
nitrogr.am/instagram-statistics/
• "The Meanings of the Selfie." James Franco. The New York Times. 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/
2013/12/29/arts/the-meanings-of-the-selfie.html?_r=0
* All images taken from Flickr under the Creative Commons License. All photographers are given credit on photographs.
Sources
Photo by: Jason Howie