Boston College 2028: the name of the accepted students’ Instagram page. During my senior year of high school, I constantly checked this page once I knew BC was where I wanted to go. Post after post, I saw pictures of people who seemed like they had it all figured out: in their pictures all I saw were models and in their bios I saw the perfect sentences to explain their interests. Despite my excitement for the next four years, I was extremely worried about how I was going to portray myself this way and these feelings were not exclusively mine.
After talking to many students in the Class of 2028, it is clear that curating the perfect post was an extreme source of anxiety. “Do these represent me well? Will people think this of me if I post this one? It was a very formulated group of pictures,” says Stacy Mancino, MCAS ‘28. Every picture had to be checked by friends and family members to ensure that the five chosen were the absolute perfect ones that would help find a roommate and make new friends. Once the pictures were chosen, the bio had to be written. I noticed that almost everyone wrote “I love going out but also staying in.” It seemed like everyone had the same habits, and I felt like I had to write the same things too. After finally picking out the three to four sentences that most perfectly describe yourself, it’s time to send the post in.
After getting posted, it is expected that the stress will just disappear, but that does not seem to be the case. Freshman Molly Coakley, MCAS ‘28, said, “once I finally posted I thought all my stress would go away, but then I was more stressed…I would look at it every day.” This seemed to be the case for many students, including myself. After finally being posted, an entire new level of anxiety was introduced: there were constant thoughts about if people were liking my post or if the right amount of people were DMing me. “I was always comparing my likes to other people’s. I didn’t even end up finding my roommate on the page,” explains Katie Imbragno, CSON ‘28. The accepted students’ Instagram page was made so that people could meet their roommates and maybe make some friends before coming to campus, but it seems to have caused much more stress than it has helped incoming students. One student even stated that “It would be so much easier if everyone was random.”
After arriving on campus, I thought that the Instagram worries would be over because the accepted students’ page was no longer relevant, but the stress shifted to a new part of Instagram. Stories and posts from people at BC or back home caused many freshmen to question themselves and their experiences. “I found myself comparing my experience to those from my hometown…like I wasn’t doing enough,” explains Mia Kay, CSON ‘28. I would constantly find myself comparing my first week to that of others at BC, especially when I saw people posting with huge friend groups during the first weekend. I was so worried that I was doing something wrong because I didn’t have any pictures to post. “I just thought, ‘How did these girls find a friend group so big when I feel like the only person I know is my roommate?’” stated Katie Imbragno. Even though so many others were also experiencing the same concerned feelings, there was no way to know that by just looking at Instagram. Katie’s experience, my experience, and so many others’ experiences were negatively impacted by the anxiety Instagram causes because those perfect lives that are shown just aren’t real life.
The stress from other people showcasing their lives on Instagram leads others to also want to post and show how much fun they are having. This leads to a cycle that seems to be impossible to break. One student shared their experience with the cycle of Instagram, “I had a really hard time transitioning into BC being far away from my family and my friends and my town, but when I would go home for fall break or Thanksgiving break, all my friends or people that followed me on social media would say ‘Oh my gosh it looks like you’re having such a good time’ because of what I was posting and I kind of just realized that honestly everything you saw on Instagram was not real because it never showed how I was really sad at night and calling my parents when I got a chance and texting my friends that I missed them.” This story truly showcases that what is shown on Instagram can be extremely deceiving and at times quite harmful to others.
While speaking with the freshman class about their experiences, it became clear that only the female students I interviewed had these similar experiences. I asked about 20 freshmen boys if they posted on the BC accepted students’ page and only one said yes. Even the one, Isaac Ha, MCAS ‘28, said that when he posted he “didn’t think too much of it…[he] just left it alone.” It’s plausible some male students had a different experience with the accepted students’ Instagram, but it seems like the majority did not have the same level of stress and anxiety that the female students did.
Whether it is setting up the most flawless post for the accepted students’ page or posting with a perfect group of friends in the first days of school, Instagram only shows the ideal. My advice to you? When you find yourself comparing your life to others on Instagram, just think about how you have probably posted just to show you’re having an amazing time or doing something unique. So next time you’re getting that wave of anxiety from someone else’s post just remember: Instagram is not real life.
Political Science major who loves a chai latte, running, and good conversations.
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