Documenting the Instagram Community with @technopaul’s “Instagram Is”
“In a culture immersed in technology, Instagram is reviving adventure, face to face community and real relationships. How can something so digital actually get people out from behind their devices into the analog world?”
When filmmaker Paul Tellefsen (@technopaul) was asked to make a trailer for a “fake movie” as an assignment in his senior year at UT Dallas, he decided to take a look at the community he’d fallen into through Instagram. After finishing the trailer, Paul felt he had to continue exploring this community and telling their stories, so his “fake” film became his senior capstone, and he set out on a trip across the United States to make his vision a reality. After months of filming, directing, editing and marketing, Instagram Is finally premiered last night.
Check out Paul’s short documentary to hear the experiences of people from across the Instagram community and the adventures they’ve shared.
Millennials.
As someone who is 26 credits away from obtaining a Bachelors of Science in Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, as someone who could [and should] be the poster child for Millennials all over the country, I’m a little concerned about the bad rap we’re getting. Reading these articles bashing us, calling us entitled, spoiled, and narcissistic is more than troublesome to me.
Entitled
From as long as I can remember I knew I would go to college. Now, as a Sociology student I’ve learned that children from high socioeconomic backgrounds feel more in control of their education and the education system they have access to. Conversely, as someone who was expelled from her high school, these feelings have been a little skewed. Why are all of these Baby Booms upset that we’re entitled? why is that a bad thing? I’m entitled to this education I’m expected to get. I don’t understand. Aren’t we just doing what’s expected of us?
Spoiled
Now this I can partially agree with. I’m reading these articles that say employers should beware because: “Millennials are in need of constant praise” or “they come from a world where everyone is a winner, even the loser” and “participation ribbons ruined the Millennial”. In need of constant praise—that’s fair. Take the kids for instance who have graduation parties for High School graduation where all you had to do was not die for 4 years. Talk about an expectation. And I blame this whole anti-bullying movement for this idea of “everyone is a winner”. No, you’re probably a loser. However, I personally do love the apathy associated with winning that this has created. Now as far as participation ribbons ruining us—totally accurate. Look at your Bachelors Degree from your respected undergraduate institution. That is a participation ribbon if I’ve ever seen one. Think about what you had to do to get that “degree”. Sometimes I sit back and marvel at how little I do (and how much money I’m spending to do so) and laugh at how anyone thinks it’s real. When people ask me how school is and I say “fake” they really have no idea. But this isn’t our fault! I’m looking at you, Baby Boomers! Telling us how awesome we are at every turn (like, thanks but look what you’ve done) and celebrating the smallest accomplishments with a ribbon.
Narcissistic
Again, something I partially agree with. As the self-documentation phenomenon tells us, our generation is incredibly dependent on sharing every aspect of our lives via social networks. By doing so, we feel more important and our actions (or thoughts) have more meaning as they’re catapulted into cyber space for all of our peers to agree or disagree with. However, is this narcissistic? sure we think our thoughts and daily activities are more important and more interesting than they usually are but is that really bad? Plus our “narcissism” isn’t debilitating, even without social networks we probably still wouldn’t have jobs.
That being said, as graduation approaches I’m thinking of any way possible to continue this hiatus from reality at any cost. I’ve come to grips with the fact that I’ll be paying my student loans until I die and that I’ll probably be paying them with money I earned at a job that does not require a degree. Although many Millennials are saying they would’ve been better off skipping college all together, I beg to differ. If we wouldn’t have gone to college our entitlement, spoiled nature and narcissism would be completely unwarranted. And our social status would take a dramatic hit. We are the future workforce, we are your future teachers, doctors, lawyers, and parents (that last part is kind of scary) and since we’re not going anywhere the generations before us should come to grips with it.
To celebrate the exciting return of Arrested Development, a few of us greeting card artists put our heads (and pencils) together and whipped up a (fake) mini-line of greeting cards that anyone can download and print out for free!
It’s super easy! Download the high-res files here. They even come with a dotted line for the fold and should print easily to your basic home printer.
And if you like them, please share them to your heart’s content!
(via pixie-dicks)
