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We’ve all done it. Deleting your photo on Instagram because of receiving next to no likes. Well, I used to. You might still be doing it. And you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say you’re still doing it. You know the step by step I’m talking about it. First you take a photo or a selfie. You might have taken a lot of photos or a lot selfies, so you might be deciding which photo is better than the others or which selfie is better than the others. Even though the photos or selfies might look exactly the same. You then take your sweet time editing the photo you picked.

You head over to an outside application to edit the photo to make it a quality photo by picking the right filters, the right lighting and the right angle. All to make the photo stand out. And then you send the photo to Instagram. After the photo gets to Instagram, you start doing little finishing touches on the photo, whether that be tagging people, tagging a location or even coming up with a clever caption. You might even get a little fancy with it and add a couple of emojis and a couple of hashtags to your photo or selfie. And after it’s all said and done, you click send and the photo is posted. The photo is finally on your Instagram feed.

After working tirelessly turning your basic photo or selfie into an HD quality, stand out photo, you’re thinking to yourself, this photo is so beautiful, it’s breathtaking, but after you post the photo, or selfie, to your dismay, no one is liking your photo. You consulted with your friends on the photo you posted just before you posted it, being told by your friends that the photo is amazing, that you picked the right one and you should post it. Your friends give you the go-ahead approval to post the photo.

Yet, seconds go by and they’re no likes showing up, then the seconds turn into minutes and still no likes. Minutes after minutes are passing by and then right before your eyes a half an hour has passed. Maybe, just maybe, you garner three or five likes from the photo or selfie, but to you these numbers might as well say zero. To you, three or five likes are nothing worth celebrating. How long the photo you posted stays on your feed depends on how insecure you are.

You might have deleted the photo within seconds, immediately regretting the photo. Or within minutes of posting the photo without gaining any likes. Maybe, just maybe, you have lasted a full 30 minutes of the photo being on your feed and garnered three or five likes, but at the end of the day, the amount of likes on your photo don’t live up to your standards and you click delete. Depending how popping your Instagram is, even 10 to 15 likes might not even be your standard and you still click delete. Your standard might even be a lot higher than that and you still click delete.

All the time you spent on the photo or selfie, all the smiles that were put on your face thinking how good the photo is turns out to be for nothing. All the smiles on your face while picking the best filter, angle and lighting on the photo are all for nothing. All for nothing because the reception from your peers is more important than how you view the photo and so you hit delete.

Instead of realizing that the only thing that should matter is how you view the photo, you think about why the photo was a failure. You start to question yourself; Did you really pick the right photo? Did you really pick the right selfie? Did the angle, lighting and filter that you picked really compliment the photo or mess it up? Did you post the photo or selife at a time where nobody is awake? All of these questions are being pondered in your head instead of realizing that the only thing that matters is how you view the photo.

And yet you keep on following this pattern. You then finally pick the best time to post that photo or seflie that you deleted, you’re now getting a lot of likes on your photo, this time around you are finally getting what you wanted, you now have that smile on your face from getting a lot of likes, but isn’t this smile fake? Shouldn’t the smile you get from creating the photo or selfie be better to you and more real for you than the smile you get from the likes? In reality, it should, but it doesn’t. In our generation, how people view you is incredibly powerful because of the emergence of Social Media.

I used to fall under this trap. Thinking that what other people think of me is more important than they way I think of myself. So, I used to hit delete. When it comes to Instagram, I don’t anymore, but the truth is, I still do think about how people view me, but I’m just more self-aware of myself and I know that how I view myself is more important, but for others this isn’t so simple.

And so instead of realizing that the only thing that should matter to you is how you view the photo, you hit delete. It’s easy to say stop deleting your Instagram photos because they’re not getting any likes and to write about it and explain why you should, but the truth is you won’t. You won’t because it’s not that simple. It’s just not that simple. Writing about it and talking about it won’t change your mind. I mean, maybe you will stop deleting your Instagram photos because of what I’m saying, but you would be in the minority.

Social Media has created a generation of insecure people. The sad thing is that the majority of the people in our generation are insecure and they are incredibly quiet about it, only seen when deleting their photos. So are you in the majority or in the minority? Only you can change that about yourself, I can write about it, i can get you thinking about it, but only you can change that about yourself. So are you in the majority or in the minority?

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If you liked this piece, I’m currently working on my debut book that touches on this topic as well.

SO HEAD OVER TO MY NEW SITE CREATIVE HOUSE WHERE I’M WORKING ON MY DEBUT BOOK

https://creativehouse.pixpa.com/prologue

MY MOTTO IS: IF YOU WANNA WIN THE LOTTERY, YOU HAVE TO MAKE THE MONEY TO BUY A TICKET!

From The 6ix,With Love

Thank You For Reading

Sincerely, Kid From The 6ix

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