The one thing Instagram taught me about Body Acceptance
Instagram started out as a platform for photographers to share their work. Once it became mainstream and popular, the selfie movement, butt pictures and a whole lot of “fitspo” images became the norm.
I spent years of my life following “fitspo” accounts, bodybuilding competitors, models and celebrities. At first, I took great pleasure in getting such a private glimpse into everyone’s life. I convinced myself that all I do is inspire myself to work harder in the gym and the kitchen.
Little did I realize that most of the “fitspo” people and bodybuilders have disordered eating behaviors and no social life. Moreover, the models and celebrities made it their JOB to look like this. I was just pursuing it as a hobby – or so I thought.
I found myself stalking random strangers and getting down on myself
In the midst of my eating disorder, I spent hours a day scrolling and looking at other bodies on Instagram. I felt that I could never live up to these people that I never even met. It took me years to figure out that these people choose to show a glimpse of their lives that is attractive to other people. They don’t show the social events they are missing out on. They don’t show the family meals they don’t get to share. Also, they don’t show their insecurities and bad angles. Or their disordered behaviors that allow them to maintain a very low body fat percentage. I say this because I lived this life myself – without portraying it on Instagram.
The “fitspo” life is not what it seems
You don’t magically wake up one day with six pack abs and a great tan. Not only is there hard work in the gym and a regimented food intake. There’s also the social aspect of it: your friendships might suffer. You are eating foods that are not very palatable and you have to constantly watch your food intake. You cannot sleep in on a Sunday, because if you don’t get your gym session in, everything is ruined. It is an obsession that slowly eats away at your life.
How I use Instagram today
Guess what? There is a little button next to each person’s profile that you follow. It says, “unfollow”. My advice is to hit “unfollow” relentlessly. Don’t worry about people’s feelings if you know them personally and especially don’t worry if you don’t know them. You don’t owe your happiness to anyone but yourself. Unfollow, unsubscribe and cancel out the negativity in your life. Often times, we are our own worst enemy, because we inflict this negativity upon ourselves by comparing ourselves to others.
My second advice is to start following accounts with very diverse bodies and skin colors. Nowadays, my feed is filled with body positive accounts, different shapes and sizes and people from all over the world. I have unfollowed over 500 accounts – believe it or not. Some of them I knew personally, most of them I didn’t. Some of them confronted me and it was awkward, but my happiness is more important than their ego.
I use Instagram to help me accept my body by seeing as much body diversity in my feed as I can. And let me tell you, as soon as somebody on there makes me feel less than, I hit the unfollow button and stop thinking about it.
It is a liberating feeling to take back your power, even though you had it all along… We choose to follow these people and we can also choose to unfollow them and focus on accepting our beautiful selves just as we are.