Never in a million years would I have thought that an app that’s basically just a gallery of personal photos could be so stressful. However, Instagram defied the odds and proved that anything is possible. What once started off as an authentic and simple app filled with candid moments of people’s lives slowly turned into a culture obsessed with perfection. This is no exaggeration either. If you search “Instagram” on YouTube, you can see a handful of videos with more than a million views about how to curate the most aesthetically pleasing feed or gain more followers and likes.

No longer about sharing aspects of one’s personal life, Instagram transformed into a place of business for people to build a brand or image. Many users even opted to switch their accounts into a professional one where they can see their engagement and growth. It’s no wonder that most people think of Instagram when discussing the toxic social media culture. Compared to apps such as Twitter and TikTok, Instagram became extremely serious as it created pressure to be perfect.

However, it seems like the majority of users are tired of treating Instagram as seriously as they used to. This is most likely the reason why a lot of people started to make “finstas,” slang for fake Instagram, where they could make a private account dedicated to posting whatever they wanted for their close friends to see without worrying about their public image. These Instagram accounts are more candid, personal and casual than one’s main account, but it’s still inconvenient to make a whole new account to post what you actually want.

But people no longer want to think about if a family photo will match their feed or wonder if a certain selfie will get a good number of likes. They don’t want to spend hours editing their pictures and constantly checking their follower count. Now, users want Instagram to be completely casual again without having to make a separate, private account.

One of the best outcomes of making Instagram casual is that it can remove the toxic pressure to be perfect. So, if you constantly find yourself stressed by Instagram, you may want to partake in the casual Instagram movement. All you have to do is delete those photo editing apps, hide your like count and starting posting whatever you want.

In the long run, you might find that making your Instagram carefree and more personal is not only beneficial for your mental health but also a brilliant and candid time capsule to look back on. Instead of seeing a false identity or fictitious version of yourself, you can enjoy the real memories and random pictures that represent who you really are as you scroll through your feed.

Here at the Clog, we think that the casual Instagram feed movement is definitely an online trend you might want to follow. Now, we can only hope that this trend soon becomes the status quo!