Instagram and Self Sabotage

Intagram-Devil1

Yesterday I was in a doctors waiting room and the mother next to me started to breastfeed her little girl.

I almost vomited.

What an unattractive, disgusting bimbo she was.

Oh, I’m sorry. Let me explain. As the absolutely gorgeous child was drinking her mother’s milk, the mother was scrolling instagram. Now, this in itself wasn’t bad until I noticed that every single photo was of a photoshopped model. Their perfectly shaped curves reflected off the child’s eyes as she drank.

I understand why men follow hot girls on instagram, but why do women? Men are visual creatures. Men are weak. The moral compass of the average man is based on what is socially acceptable. All men do it, but what makes it even easier for men to follow insta-porn is that women do it too.

Why do women follow sexy fitness models?

The instagram feed we hold in our hand is a manifestation of our desire as well as the confirmation of our own belief. Now, what does that mean?

We believe we aren’t good enough, so we follow someone who we believe is better than us. Our belief of inadequacy subconsciously tells us to follow what we want to become. We believe we aren’t good enough, so we choose every spare minute we have reminding ourselves that we aren’t good enough.

Isn’t this… Messed up?

Or, maybe you think it’s healthy to constantly bombard your senses with the most beautiful people in the world showing off the best luxuries in the world while you wonder why it’s so hard to leave the house without putting on make up? Maybe you think it’s a wise to replicate the attitude of people who’s success is based on nothing more than being born beautiful or being able to be in the position to train their body for 12 hours a day?

Take your power back.

Follow pages of art, nature, love, kindness, charity, music, education, culture, poetry! Saturate your retinas with stunning images of everything beautiful in this world. Beauty isn’t perfectly drawn eyebrows and life isn’t about taking photos in exotic locations.

As a man, the most unattractive thing a girl can do on social media is to ‘like’ photos of hot women they don’t know.

Unfollow all the shallow creatures of this earth. Set an example for the little girls out there who’s childhood are cut short be the desire to fit in in the new world of public perception.

And if you don’t unfollow the foolishness, that’s fine too. But, you can never again complain about how there is unfair pressure on women to look pretty. You are putting that unfair pressure on yourself. Every day.

Maybe this rant is ignorance, or maybe I’m just tired of people choosing to feed their mind with unattainable desires that serve no purpose to their long term happiness.

Who do you follow?

PS: No, the story about the breastfeeding isn’t true, but you get the point.

Written by Randall Evans
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Thanks for reading The Vile Mint. If I was able to spark your imagination, make you think or open your mind to new perspectives, please leave me a comment. I love hearing from readers and building relationships. God Bless.

61 thoughts on “Instagram and Self Sabotage”

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  3. I personally like looking at people who sew. They are much more attractive than a fitness model. Who wants to see abs…ick!!! I’d rather see the furrowed brow, the gleam in the eye, the smile and sense of accomplishment of turning on the fires of creativity.
    6 pack abs are like plastic surgery…eventually gravity catches up with you.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. “Eventually gravity catches up with you” hahaha.

      I think there isn’t anything inherintly wrong with making progress towards good health, but making glam the centeral voice in your instagram feed is such a silly thing to do. There are infinite amounts of creative people to follow that will open new pathways in our work infested brains.

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      1. I’m in great health. But my abs won’t be photographed. I have had children and my energy was spent on being an example of a quality loving being. To spend so much time on personal appearance is so full of ego. We do not groom to the extreme because it is needed. It is done to get likes and approval. So what happens when that person isn’t groomed to the extreme?
        Its like Facebook…all an illusion. I’d rather see the real person. Not one I’m terrified to be around to see them flip out because they had one too many carb grams. Good health, balance and obsession are different things. I prefer balance which promotes good health. But hey I’m just an old fart who knows a lot.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. As a woman of three daughter, the pressure put on them to look a certain way as teenagers and now even as adults, it is unsettling. I agree about women sexualizing themselves and then crying about a man looking at them in a ‘certain’ way.

    Liked by 3 people

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  5. I’m going to disagree here – I dont think there is anything wrong with following anyone and this is primarily because i dont know why they have chosen to follow a particular person. You assume she has a self image issue but that is entirely an assumption. My son follows a number of male models – when i asked him why he said he liked to get design ideas from their tattoos. I would never have even thought of that

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    1. Thanks for your comment. It wasn’t a true story I was describing. I was painting a picture of parental responsibility and setting an example for our kids. Again, I feel that Instagram is a tool, but can also be a burden on our subconscious minds. Like they say, ‘garbage in garbage out’.

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      1. Yes, but it also requires men to not tell women what they do and don’t find attractive about their choices, be it clothing, makeup, or instagram accounts they follow.

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      2. Good woman in my life told me it was unattractive to like heaps of sexy photos on Instagram. I listened and changed my follow list. I wouldn’t have changed my list of I didn’t agree.

        Men and women can have opinions and should always speak honestly.

        All I want to say here is that there is a crazy about of good stuff on Instagram and it’s a waste if all you see are profiles that say “look how pretty I am”.

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      3. You are dictating what is or isn’t unattractive. Of course, you’re entitled to your opinion and your views of what is or isn’t attractive (to you) but the world does not need to conform to your standards. Your idea that you are empowering women seems a liitle misguided. Respect the choice of others and their unique life paths that determine how they deal with the repercussions of that choice.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. I don’t want the world to conform to my standards, I want individuals to question why they have certain standards. I’m glad that you disagree because it shows you’ve already thought about these things. You clearly aren’t the target audience for this post.

        I don’t respect the choices of anyone who hasn’t thought about their choices. That’s like saying, “if he wants to drink drive, respect his choice”. Mindlessly allowing yourself to conform to what is popular on Instagram is stupid to me. But look, if that’s a conscious decision of the user than so be it. I will respect it.

        But hey, I ended the post saying that it was probably just my ignorance. Probably true for my comments here too.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Your opening was a hypothetical. Perhaps if you referred to a real scenario and questioned the IG user and established that she was in fact distressed about not conforming to a type and longed to be like the images she sees you’d have a point, but even then it would be specific to just that one person and one IG user experience. Your post is very generalised and appears the target audience is women.

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  7. I love this! I think you make a great point!! I wish more girls would stop tryin to have unrealistic views of what beautiful means. I’m glad I continued to read this post because you almost lost me at the disgusting breastfeeding mother 😅😂

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      3. Say your comment was in truth, and you really thought breastfeeding was disgusting, I would have read anyways to see why you thought that way. You executed that perfectly for what you wanted to achieve, the surprise factor. ☺️

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  8. I have to agree with your primary point – feminine hypocrisy – which is complaining about the objectification of women but only when men do it.

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  10. “Follow pages of art, nature, love, kindness, charity, music, education, culture, poetry!” I loved that admonition. It actually reminded me of a verse from Scripture. “…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things” (Philippians 4: 8).

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  11. HAHA. Listen your first couple of lines got me and I was like “WHAT THE FUCK” but then i def kept reading and saw the point of your post. I love social media to really connect with people and bounce ideas from one person to another. I don’t think I use it for much of following fitness people (I have a couple though) but to each their own I guess? LOL

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  12. Loved this read man, can relate to most of what you say.

    You have to be “awake” if that’s what you want to call it hahahah. Trying to find a word most will understand.

    Everything you say is quite true, most of it is sold as propaganda to the public to make everyone purchase into the material world.

    Makeup and all the little girls as well, I work retail and I’ve heard little girls and have seen little girls wearing makeup at age 4. Because you know mommy wears makeup so they have to also.

    This is a strange world, is leading into a crazy place hahaha.

    At the beginning I was iffy but then I totally understand your point of view.

    Happy i read this hahaha.

    Love the emotion and energy I’m it, I bet people will think your words are full of ignorance.

    But we don’t live in a world where we all agree 100%.

    Just be you and do what makes you the happiest.

    Have a great Sunday! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. “Stay woke” hahaha.

      Thanks for your comment, I really appreciate it.

      We do live in a really strange time, but then again, self image has always been an issue in different ways across the ages.

      Our phones are such powerful devices and I just hate seeing people using them passively.

      Happy Monday 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Thanks hahahah! 🙂

        Yeah no problem man, rarely comment. This post caught my attention very well, good job on that! Was sucked in the whole read.

        Very true, always try to tell people the inside matters more than the outside. Internal and not external.

        Yes, very powerful devices being used in a horrible way, more like brainwashing many individuals.

        Thanks. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  14. I love Instagram. I think of it almost in the same way I think of tv, it’s not necessarily reflective of real life but it’s fun to look at some times. I follow all sorts of accounts, art and nature, other bloggers etc but I also follow lots of pretty people because I don’t think there’s any harm in that.

    I think maybe worshiping people just because they’re good-looking and admiring that more than anything is a problem but I don’t think I’d go as judging someone because of their preference. Maybe they find art and nature boring in the same way you find fitness models boring…? Just a different perspective on it

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. I think you could be right. I don’t know.

      I just think instagram is a great tool to explore weird and wonderful things (fitness pages included). It’s just a shame that such a diverse app can be used as a TV in the sense that everyone ends up looking at the same thing. Maybe we are just wired to like the same things? Again, I don’t know.

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  18. I don’t have any social media accounts because I found the whole thing to be a soul sucking experience. I would never like or follow anyone I didn’t respect. I believe we should look up to people who are worthy of our respect and praise and the majority of people that are worshipped are setting poor examples for others. I respect what you said and I agree.

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      1. They really are time wasters. I used Pinterest one day when it first came out and lost half a day so I never went back. Thanks for writing insightful posts the world needs them. ☺

        Liked by 1 person

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