Instagram is a landmark in today’s pop-culture landscape and like anything popular it too has been satirised. And now that Instagram is getting notorious for helping to turn taste and style into the same boring, uniform thing, some users choose to go about it totally differently.
From AirSpace to Instagram Face
Has everything and everyone started looking the same since Instagram? Trendy cafés look eerily the same across the globe, having earned the name AirSpace. There is even a surprisingly hard quiz on this Dutch news website to test if you can tell where a coffee place is situated.
Beauty trends existed before Instagram, but with image retouching apps on phones, the desired version of yourself is now just a tap away, turning Instagram into a stage with performances well orchestrated, the most looked for Instagram Face being young and possibly poreless Bella Hadid.
Instagram has changed its algorithms and annoys its users having become more like Facebook (after Facebook took over). Instagram was a great platform for creatives to share. Now it has tons of terrible advertising and has let go of its quintessential textless square format. Anyone want to create a new creative sharing app that remains among the people?
And is everyone sharing the same type of photos all the time? Shots of cappuccinos, and food that restaurants carefully style to get repped on Instagram, instead of focusing on taste. Check out these accounts for something different.
The Parallel Lives of Barbie on Instagram
Instagram has become a place where accounts with many followers are paid to casually promote merchandise, services or restaurants. These influencers are not necessarily even real, living people anymore. Sometimes they are digitally created and animated with companies making the profit and without having to deal with any controversy over dubious endorsements personally. Whoever was following any of these following Barbie accounts might have seen this development coming though, as a plastic doll is brought to ‘life’ in these various Instagram accounts.
@barbiestyle is an official Barbie account that puts a lot of care in bringing its doll to life by letting it ‘do’ typical Instagram style things such as wearing a (tiny!) oversized, trendy bomber jacket on top of a roof. If ‘authentic living’ sounds like it fits your millennial needs, check out @socalitybarbie for fun cliché outdoorsy shots. The account @barbiesavior takes it a step further and pokes fun at girls taking selfies with shelter babies during volunteer vacations abroad.
Celeste Barber
Hot, young models posing very seriously in impossible-to-recreate ways: @CelesteBarber goes ahead and recreates these model shots with hilarious results, and forces us to consider the reality behind these photos that Instagram models put online. Celeste Barber’s account has gotten so popular on Instagram that she ended up on the cover of Vogue magazine and has walked fashion shows. For Celeste Barber content beyond Instagram and YouTube, check out her book or podcast.
Bros Being Basic
On the @brosbeingbasic account there’s photos of guys doing ‘basic’ things that girls normally do on Instagram. Think the fitness model ass pose, chill bathrobe and hair towel shots, sexy beach poses with friends. All the togetherness and guys sharing intimate moments is also heartwarming though, prepare to smile.
BAD LIL BADDIE
Having wrinkles is very much not considered Instagram Face. So anyone who goes against the face of that is a rebel indeed. @Baddiewinkle is an exception as having become a (life)style icon at the age of 85, sporting outfits very different from the formal dressing expected of people of age. People that aren’t young are often rendered invisible in our society, but BAD LIL BADDIE is very much visible. Dressing very colorfully and casually, Instagram fame commenced when her great granddaughter took a picture of Baddiewinkle’s favorite summer outfit: tie-dye rainbow butterfly shirt with jean cut-offs and socks with a weed leaves pattern.
Boyfriends of Insta
So who is taking all those perfect casual shots for the girls posing on the beach? Well, a lot of boyfriends go to great lengths to be at service to their ladies in pursuit of perfect and flattering photos. See for yourself at @boyfriendsofinsta for some hilarious artistry and cameraman fails.
Carrie Dragshaw
When pop-culture is released into the world, it takes on a life of its own with fun and fascinating results. Inspired by the HBO series Sex and the City, @Dan_Clay creatively recreates column writer Carrie Bradshaw outfits as Carrie Dragshaw.
It all started one Halloween… Not only does he recreate these outfits, he has great writing in the captions inspired by the diary-style musings of Carrie Bradshaw ‘and then I wondered..’. You can also check out the cute advice column: https://www.carriedragshaw.com/dear-carrie
In Conclusion
Some of these accounts have outgrown Instagram and have burst into the rest of the media landscape. The funny commentary, satire, originality of these accounts is very welcome in what has the danger of becoming a boring, homogenous selfie arena in a virtual world of curated lives styled to perfection. Now let’s see which platform to migrate to as creatives on social media.
How do you find artists online? What are you favorite original, funny or subversive Instagram accounts?
Follow me on Instagram: @rainbow_reinilde or see posts on my About Me page