Instagram is a social media platform that has grown to be extremely powerful within today’s society due to the rise of social media influencers. Influencers are seen as public figures and are often known to use the “highlight reel effect”, meaning everyone shares their best moments in life. Our project will focus on Instagram, where we hope to bring to light the damaging impacts this culture has on mental health and raise awareness around the impacts this has on mental health. We did this by creating a profile mirroring what an Inlfuencer’s profile would look like with a set theme and filter. However, we would also post the unedited versions as well as a behind the scenes look into how we took the images. Throughout the course of this project, we came to realise just how set up Instagram profiles are, including the amount of time and effort that goes in to posting an “ideal photo”. We hope that we were able to raise awareness that this “highlight reel” influencers try to present of themselves is in fact false and everyday users should not feel as though they have to conform to this idea of making themselves and their lives seem perfect. 

Link to Instagram (Major Project): https://www.instagram.com/insta.unfiltered_/

Link to Tik Tok (Side Project): https://www.tiktok.com/@insta.unfiltered_?lang=en&fbclid=IwAR1FGddk9A4-ANN7Dj1ujBj7Q-4y2X8BB3wojcjqQTl3LOz4IsxBR6bt-5w

Created by: Billy, Erin, Kaleisha, Lachlan and Miranda