Someone on my Timeline tweeted ‘Lightskin girls feed on Instagram likes’. As is the norm, people ‘LOL-ed’ and manual Re-tweeted the tweet and it was soon forgotten. But come to think of it, the gravity of the whole social media vibe and addiction is direr than we envisioned. Girls have been worse hit by the catastrophe. We have become mental slaves out there peddling our flesh and bodies for a few Facebook and Instagram likes.
We seize every opportunity to upload a pic with very shallow and unrelated deep quotes as our taglines. It has almost become a sin to eat our food before first uploading it, and not the common-man’s ‘ugali-sukuma wiki’ kind of diet lest people think you’re from some distant village in Murang’a or Cheptais.
The selfie-struggle has become so real and imminent; girls crane their necks and twist their hands in the weirdest fashion just to take that perfect selfie to upload on Instagram. Apparently, the duck face and crossed legs is supposed to accentuate curves, real or imagined. Several cam shots are taken in the same posture before a thorough selfie analysis is conducted to select the perfect picture fit for upload.
Be warned, this process may take several hours if not days after which several filters are added and basic photoshop skills come in handy for enhancement purposes. One wonders just how far girls would’ve been if they exhibited the same kind of effort in their studies or work.
As soon as the chosen picture is uploaded, the long wait for ‘likes’ begins. The said victims will be spotted picking their phones and refreshing their browsers every 60 seconds to see if there are any comments or likes. Woe unto thee if you happen to be ‘dark skin’ and more so a dark skin who’s decided to wear a turtleneck.
You see, my problem with this craze for ‘likes’ is the fact that it has reduced us women to such low levels. You won’t believe the kinds of stunts girls are pulling just to get a little internet love and affection. If it isn’t wearing ridiculous amounts of make up or exposing their body parts, then it’s taking ass shots and taking those strategic photos in bikinis by the pool shots. We are slowly stamping ‘sexual object’ all over the modern day woman. The notion that a woman cannot get recognition without using her feminine wiles and her body is being slowly planted into our systems. What happened to the 21st Century breed of women that took pride in their brains?
And if you thought that only teenage girls and campus chics were the ones affected by this addiction, you are in for a shock. Even ladies in their late 20’s and early 30’s are out there posing in front of the camera and taking selfies at Galito’s washrooms for a few likes.
Now, I am not dictating how you should lead your life or how many pictures you should take, it’s your phone, boobs and bundles after all; but have some decency woman. You are worth more than those 20 likes!
