Usually, Instagram is an ideal way to avoid doing the tasks you need to accomplish. The mindless scrolling through people’s daily activities helps us to forget about our own activities. But throughout the year there are a few days when Instagram’s feed gets more crowded than Brown’s at noon. The recent National Sibling’s Day holiday was a prime example of this. On days like these, avoiding the app completely is the only way to get out alive while you can. We at the Clog gift to you the most annoying holidays on Instagram, ranked from most annoying to least annoying.
Mother’s/Father’s Day
Although a growing number of adults are getting social media accounts, a majority of them still live under a rock in which teenagers are “snaptexting” each other or emailing about when to have a playdate. This is why celebrating Mother’s Day or Father’s Day on Instagram is, for the most part, pointless — it becomes a competition for more likes on a post about loving a parent rather than showing your parents all your love in person. Also, the parent will most likely never see the post, so it would make more sense to leave them a note or send them a letter saying something more than the three lines that fit the socially appropriate length of an Instagram caption. While the posts are all adorable, having “I love you” Instagram captions makes the holiday generic and not specific to your parent.
4th of July
On July 4, your day is likely going to be filled with red, white, blue and scrolling. The American Day of Independence has become a highly commercialized holiday on which everyone spends a lot of money on decorations and ridiculous eagle outfits, making it the perfect opportunity for picture taking. But at some point, all the pictures start to blend together and you feel like you’re looking at the same thing just at a different angle or location.
Valentine’s Day (if you’re single)
For those of us in a relationship with ourselves and the occasional pint of ice cream, Valentine’s Day on social media is worse than failing a midterm. It’s like scrolling through enough pictures to fill a museum and they all remind you that you’re single. Also, the same rule applies as Mother’s/Father’s Day in which expressions of love shouldn’t be constrained by one caption. But these Valentine’s Day pictures do give single people a chance to live vicariously through couples and be a third wheel forever.
National Dog Day
Just kidding, this holiday is the best thing to be brought to our planet Earth. There’s been an entire day dedicated to filling our phones with pictures of squishy dog cheeks, big puppy eyes, games of fetch and childhood pictures with our dogs. Even though dogs can’t read, expressing our love for them is still a wonderful thing, because pictures of dogs make everyone happy. Unless you’re a cat person, in which case the real question is: Why are you a cat person? Have you seen dogs?
Even though some holidays clog our feeds and make it seem like every post is the same thing, it’s still days like these that revive everyone’s faith in humanity. These days are a chance to show gratitude that we usually don’t show. Live everyday like it’s National Dog Day.
Contact Emilia Malachowski at emalachowski@dailycal.org.