«Casual Instagram» Is the Opposition to the Dictatorship of Aesthetics
High-gloss on our Instagram profiles is no longer state-of-the-art. We're moving «Casual Posting» from our Finstas to the main accounts, and tackling the forced perfection.
Welcome back my lovely folks,
Yet another early Friday morning is upon us. At this very minute the coffee machine next to me is heating up, while the smell of the coffee beans waiting to be grinded spreads through the room and the morning sun shines on my busily typing hands. A perfect, imperfect morning.
Also for this reason, we dedicate ourselves today to the nonchalant way of life, which is spreading more and more in our world. As example, Adidas blew up the internet with 25 bare breasts without any censorship or photoshop, at the Copenhagen Fashion Weeks emerging designers show insouciant fashion and Euphoria continues to show the most beautiful people in the ugliest parts of their lives – all happened this week. It's a not-at-all-perfect time we live in and we are finally coming to terms with it.
Not only the influential industries of our world have noticed this, but also the ordinary, conventional people of this planet. More precisely, the social media users. Finally, the hip ones are swearing off the perfect Instagram feeds and falling for «Casual Posting».
Bye, Bye, Finsta!
From the very beginning of Instagram in 2010, our visual appearance on the social network has gone through a number of eras and modifications. It all started as an app where we posted spontaneous snapshots of our lives and horribly edited selfies or photos of Starbucks drinks. But somewhere around the halfway, when the Kardashian-effect really took off, we all suddenly found ourselves in a world where we were reduced to the aesthetic aspect of our Instagram feeds. So 2016 was the intersection, where some of us spent hours pondering what image would fit next in our feed and others just swore off posting altogether. Both social groups, however, have come to appreciate the value of the Finsta, a private personal account where only a select few friends can see your posts. Now, though, the social network is entering a new era and Finstas are becoming obsolete as their aesthetic and «Casual Posting» approach transitions to our main accounts.
Finstas were born out of a logical conclusion at the time: many users broke under the pressure of the aesthetic performativity that prevailed and stopped posting due to the social phenomenon. However, they did get a Finsta on which they could share blurry pictures, selfies and unaesthetic shots without, for example, the judgey co-worker, their boss or their parents ever seeing the picture.
Emma Chamberlain’s Disciples
The «Casual Instagram» made its first appearances at the beginning of the pandemic, when photodumps first gained traction. All of a sudden, you saw photo rows of pictures from users' lives, selfies and a cleverly placed meme all over Instagram. With «Casual Instagram», this has expanded from individual posts to the entire profile.
This change can be seen as Generation Z's counter-action against the influencer culture. Especially during the Covid-19 crisis, our desire for glamour and luxury was at an all-time low and this was reflected on digital consumption. The focus was suddenly more on seeing an honest set of photos from the person's last week than any optimally contrived photos from the latest hip event. These crucial changes in Generation Z's online behaviour reflect a desire to share real moments with friends online. Quickly, the social media platforms recognised this, leading Instagram to offer a «close friends» feature and TikTok to offer a friends-only sharing option. Given this background, the days of the performative Instagram seemed to be numbered.
One of the main key figures in this movement is influencer Emma Chamberlain. The US-American's YouTube videos have clearly shaped the teenage years of Generation Z. Whether it's her obsession with coffee, her easy-going manner or her nonchalant aesthetic, the now 20-year-old became a star in the blink of an eye on the video-streaming website. Chamberlain takes the approach of «Casual Posting» in all aspects, be it on her Instagram, Youtube or her podcast series. She's already inspired a few other celebrities with her approach: Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid recently started posting blurry photos, and Jorja Smith just posted a very obscure selfie on her main feed with the caption, «I think I might make this a parody account.» The result makes it seem like people are taking their Instagram much less seriously and posting seemingly casual photos that were taken at random. By posting finsta-worthy photos in our main feed, we're trying to show that we don't care about Instagram. But the act of not caring does also require a lot of effort, from curating large photo dumps to leading an aesthetic lifestyle.
Obviously, TikTok's role in the movement also plays a crucial role. Through the social network, we have learnt how to nonchalantly produce content that seems casual and spontaneous but still meets a certain requirement of aesthetics – in line with the guidelines of «Casual Posting».
The Consequences
Well, I've been sitting here for what feels like an eternity, clutching my coffee cup and thinking about the consequences of this trend. What became clear to me was that the trend is clearly having a big impact on the creative industry. Advertising has to rethink and evolve.
With the upcoming of «Casual Posting», traditional paid posts will stand out on users' feeds like a punk in the banking district. Advertisements will become easier to distinguish from traditional posts, making it more difficult to connect with customers on a personal level, which ultimately means that agencies will have to embrace the casual posting trend. Almost like TikTok – as example, already during my days in an agency, we had to spend countless hours explaining to clients which content really works on the social platform. So, I guess agencies will soon have to explain themselves why they implement «Casual Posting» in their social media advertising.
However, one thing that will be simplified, in my opinion, is organic advertising with influencers. In a world of «Casual Instagram», I think it will be easier to sneak in products unnoticed. So, at least this should bring an advantage for social media advertising.
Casual, It Is!
Much said, much thought and much coffee drunk. Now it's also time for me to critically rethink my Instagram presence and maybe ring Emma Chamberlain – because no one wants to have a cringe Instagram all of a sudden.
Love,
«Casual» Pascal