How Two Years Of Instagram Stories Has Altered The Way We Love, Act And Play

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#TIA – Followed in turn by how two years of altered the way we love, act and play.

“I first realised Instagram Stories had changed my friends while sitting outside a pub earlier this year. It was the point in a Friday night when drinks begin to linger on the table as everyone privately debates whether to go home.

It wasn’t a moment worth capturing, but when someone came back from the bar with a phone held up, everyone tried to make it look like one. Glasses were raised and middle fingers thrown at the camera to show the exaggerated hallmarks of people having fun.

It was the same self-conscious performance I’d given when my boyfriend recorded me driving through Ireland on New Year’s Day, the Story where you could hear my voice change key when I noticed I was being filmed.

Once I’d seen how visible the con was I saw it in everything: the exaggerated dance-floor performances, the seaside star jumps, the cocktails clinking against azure skies. If you pulled back the curtain, I wondered, was anyone having as much fun as appeared?”

Read more at Esquire