Hashtag Holiday

My holiday with 1653 followers

In 2015 I traveled to the Canary Islands with a friend and fellow photographer. During our walks through the beach towns I got the impression something was wrong with him. His phone was making a beeping sound every couple of seconds. When I asked him what was up he said: “Instagram likes, you should put your work there as well. You shoot so many images but almost no one sees them.”

That’s how my Instagram adventure began: I published ten photogaphs a day during the rest of my trip and before I knew it I had a couple of hundreds of people following me and liking my pictures. It felt great. Back home it was hard to keep posting. But every next trip I was caught again by the Instagram virus. And so every holiday resulted in an expansion of followers, likes, and yes… also my ego.

Last year new EU roaming laws came into effect. Thanks to ‘Roam Like At Home’ every EU citizen has unlimited roaming of data within the European Union. Which means unlimited access to social media on holiday and the possibility to share every minute of our trip with our followers.

A whole generation selects their holiday destination by its ‘Instagrammability’. Simpy said: Is your trip exciting enough to share with your followers? More and more articles pop up on the relationship between social media and anxiety, depression and burn-outs. Teenagers experience fear of missing out (FOMO) because their lives and holidays are just not that exciting as the ones they follow on instagram.

Instagram is not just the most liked and exciting social media, its also the one most damaging to mental health. By sharing only your most perfect moments you’re not just raising the bar for yourself, but also for the people that follow you. Their #instaholiday has to be at least as exciting as yours.

That’s why I decided to be a bit more transparent with my holiday snaps. I created disclaimers and messages that expose the true meaning behind the photographs I post. I took the posters to instagrammable locations, but am at least honest with my intentions.

As this is my first article on Medium.com, it might be full of beginners mistakes. Any feedback is welcome. Feel free to leave a reply if you enjoyed this article.

This article was originally published in Dutch by Vrij Nederland on July 21st, 2017.