Taking photos is something I really enjoy doing, but the anxiety and pressure to post them or have them be the best they can be have taken over. This is why I stopped taking pictures of myself and with others, and started taking more pictures of where I am or what I’m doing without me in it. My camera roll consists of a whopping 26,000 photographs, so I’m sure it sounds surprising that I only have 175 Instagram posts and haven’t posted to Facebook in a couple of years. Before coming abroad to Barcelona, I knew I wanted this to change. I hate not being able to look on Facebook for photographs I took my last couple years of college. I knew abroad would be an experience I’d want to remember forever, and that the best way to document it would be by taking photographs and posting them. I’m definitely a user of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. In fact, I spend most of my hours a day on these platforms, whether I’m posting my own content or viewing the content of others. I wanted my abroad experience to change the way I used these various social media platforms, and I believe it has.
When I first arrived in Barcelona, I came with the goal of taking a lot of pictures. My goal was to post at least 20 Instagram photos, upload an album to Facebook labeled “abroad”, and to post many snapchat and Instagram stories so I can remember what I did on certain days, and to let others know what I’m doing. So far I have posted 17 Instagram’s, and still have 2 more places to visit, so I think this goal is most definitely possible. The reason I care about posting so many photos to Instagram is because I typically don’t post a lot. I haven’t posted a photo to Facebook in two years, and am too picky with what I post on Instagram, resulting in me not taking many photos of myself. Before going abroad to Barcelona, I was upset with the fact that you can quickly scroll down on my Instagram and see photos I posted over a year ago. I don’t only care about this because I care about what my peers see, I care because I like taking good photographs for memories. I want to be able to scroll through my Instagram page and see a sufficient number of photos from my experiences in college, over the summer, and now abroad.
Regarding Facebook, I have yet to post a photo, but I do plan on uploading an abroad album with all my pictures from this past semester. I normally look back at my albums or photos on Facebook to remember past experiences, or to find photos with friends to post for their birthdays. Due to the fact that I haven’t uploaded photos to my Facebook page in an extensive period of time, the photos I post for my friend’s birthdays are old, or I have to scroll through my camera roll of 26,000 photos to find them. Facebook is a great platform that organizes your photos for you to easily find them. I want to one day be able to look back at my photos from every year of college, see how I’ve changed, how and if my friends have changed, etc. I’m making a promise to myself to post an abroad album, and to next semester take a lot of photos with my friends. Next year is my last year of college; meaning my last semester to document my memories and friends. I plan on thinking about this on a daily basis as a reminder of myself to take and post more photographs.
Since I’ve been abroad, I have cared a lot more about making my Instagram page visually appealing. I care a lot about the scenery where I’m taking my photos, so I can remember the places I went while making my page presentable.
I feel the background of a photograph can make the photo. I also found that if there’s a good background, I don’t care so much about being the main subject in the photo. If I’m far away, I often prefer that because I don’t have to worry so much about if I look good or not. I also care a lot more about my outfits and what I wear in my Instagram’s now than I did before I was abroad. I buy clothing with the hopes and goal of getting an Instagram in the outfit. This has also made me care less about what I look like because I can be far away and not care about my face being so visually clear. Instead, my outfit makes up for me not posting the photo simply because I think I look good. Below is an example of me posting a photograph because I like my outfit along with the background of the photo. It’s a picture of my sister and I at Park Guell. I wanted to get an Instagram here to remember my visit to this famous landmark in Barcelona forever, so keeping that in mind beforehand led to my desire in wearing an outfit I liked.
The amount of photographs I post on my Instagram stories has changed a lot since I’ve been abroad. I also feel this is correlated with the fact that I feel it’s necessary to take 25 photographs of a sunset to make sure I got the perfect picture. When my weekend traveling to another city or country is over, I look through my photographs and decide which are the best to post to my Instagram story. The fact that I take so many photos of the same thing makes it difficult for me to decide which photo I like best, and ends up being time consuming. I care so much about posting the perfect picture because I make highlights of every place I go to while abroad. I do this so that I can look back and remember the scenery, landmarks, and specifics of places I have traveled. A highlight kind of reminds me of a photo project. You take several photographs, and slowly weed out the ones that don’t make the cut, choosing those that you feel best capture what you’re trying to photograph, portray, and remember to tell your story.
Snapchat is something I use often, but I do feel that I have used it more during my abroad experience. Many of my friends on snapchat aren’t traveling abroad, or are traveling abroad in a place other than Barcelona. Due to this, I snapchat those friends daily, showing them what I’m doing, what I’m eating, and where I am. This also allows me to connect with those who have bene abroad before, because they often comment on something I’m eating or doing that they’ve eaten or done before. I also take a lot of videos on snapchat of what I’m doing, that way I can always look back on what I was doing on a particular day.
The way I use various social media platforms has definitely changed during my abroad experience. I feel that I will definitely post and share less content when my abroad experience is over, but I do believe that this experience has forever changed the way I view social media and photo taking. I now know what types of photographs I like to post on Instagram, which will have an effect on where I take photographs and why I’m taking them. I think the way I use Snapchat will go back to the way it used to be when I return home. I will post more photographs on Facebook, and finally I will view Instagram highlights differently. I will take photographs on vacations, or in NYC, to hopefully make a highlight. Abroad has made me care more about what I post on social media, which has its positives but definitely has its fair share of negatives. When I care less, I don’t post, but when I care too much, I compare myself to others and my self-confidence decreases. I don’t regret the way I have used social media platforms abroad because I am happy with the number of photos I have and have posted in order to remember this experience for the rest of my life.
Sami Wills: Social Media 