The approval we get from social media may be designed to masquerade as happiness, but its ultimate effects are very different from true happiness, attraction or respect. We end up liking not one another, but the products that we've all created. And that commodification of our own emotions acts only as a catalyst for emptiness and alienation. “Young people are curating their lives and happiness for approval,” explains psychotherapist Denise Dunne. “They get approval, but feel dead inside.
Our Instagram interactions have become less and less like true social exchanges and instead mirror our interaction with other consumer industries, which are based on the premise that if we’re not satisfied we’ll keep consuming. It isn’t in Instagram’s interest for you to find satisfaction or happiness -- which is similar to the model of a tech company or a dating app .
“Looking at Instagram is like looking at an empty fridge, you keep checking it and checking it but it’s still the same,” artist and Instagram user Andrea Mena tells me. “Adverts have always worked this way, with unhappiness. Before Instagram, it was on TV -- the perfect holiday in the Bahamas, the ideal marriage, famous people advertising everything. It’s just that now it’s not only the 1% promoting things.
By removing likes, Instagram’s policy change now places the onus of negative feelings on users. Much like the mental gymnastics used in the diet and"mindfulness" industry, the twist turns social media negativity on its head. It means thatThis feeds into a narrative we’ve come to accept; that happiness is an insular idea and mentalis our own responsibility.