That ‘what I ate for lunch’ photo is too cringe, yo!

A blurry birthday photo a status about exam stress maybe even a duckface selfie mdash posting online in the early days of Twitter or Instagram was easy You could be an average person on the Internet throwing out your shower thoughts photos of meals and even sweaty gym selfies without a care You know ldquopics or it didnrsquot happenrdquoMillennials would call it the ideal days of social media As they grew up alongside platforms they experimented and used them casually It was never about keeping up with the world dancing or debating over the latest headlines you simply could exist on the Internet to stay in touch with loved onesNow hitting lsquosharersquo on a post can feel loaded What if it looks tryhard What if no one likes it Posting on social media has evolved from sharing mundane moments and life updates to curated aesthetically pleasing performances mind you blurry photos are now an aesthetic too if done wellDivya Fofani Faisal Farooque and Gurleen GambhirThat casual posting has disappeared Meals are only posted about if you are having them at the trendiest restaurant in the city even then itrsquos usually a reel about the experience there mdash almost like a review of the space Or you can show off what you can do with AI Canva or the hundred other photo and video editing apps that exist Posting a single photo is passeacute itrsquos now all about photo dumps and videos that show your best lifeThen there are others with zero posts on their feed At first they seem like bot accounts but in reality they are lurkers mdash happy to doomscroll comment or respond on DMs but never really post anything on their feed An account on Instagram that goes by seaweedbinch has zero posts and zero followers and writes ldquoI literally have this account to chill in peace and not care about people who know me finding merdquo Ashwal who goes by _eak_k on Instagram has only one post on his feed He replies to our DM with ldquoBut thatrsquos any general user nowrdquo when we ask him to explain why he puts off posting indicating how common the practice isldquoInstagram is now entertainmentrdquo says content creator Divya Fofani ldquoPeople use it like YouTube to consume content But these lsquolurkersrsquo will watch content comment long paragraphs share or even DMrdquo he says pointing out that they arenrsquot completely passive on the InternetAre the ideal days of social media over Representational piciStockBut why are users averse to posting Perhaps for millennials as they grow older they prefer a private life While for Gen Z and Gen Alpha who were still much younger when social media platforms first launched almost 15 years ago the platforms have always been a part of their livesThe reality though is that even content creators despite social media being key to their profession donrsquot plan their posts as much ldquoI know my post is not going to affect the economy or create some major changerdquo says Ruchika Lohiya a content creator ldquoI think you have to post to be relevant But truthfully I post because I genuinely enjoy creating content A day without creating or posting content feels incomplete to merdquoFofani says that he tends to post intuitively as well In fact the only real planning is the logistics of shooting and how to package the final video For the Ganpati festival that just passed Fofani took a 48hour pilgrimage covering four corners of India His idea was to draw Lord Ganeshrsquos face on the map and to showcase the unity that festivals bring But it was not planned his flight tickets were booked merely four hours before he took off ldquoI always think How do you do something crazy I look at how strong the idea is if I will enjoy the process and try to approach things in a way that has never been done beforerdquo explains Fofani adding ldquoFor a creator consistency in posting is subjective It could be five posts a month or 15 You just need to balance the quantity with qualityrdquoGayatri Sapru cultural anthropologist right Ruchika Lohiya content creatorGurleen Gambhir a content creator admits that there is always a sense of pressure around posting regularly as a creator ldquoYou have to constantly be on your toes it shows with the audience as well If I donrsquot post anything one day my genuine followers check up on merdquoItrsquos clear that creators need to maintain their feeds and be more conscious about their image on platforms So how do they separate life from work Lohiya admits that she has a private account for close friends only She says ldquoItrsquos very random and at times cringe I post a lot of group photos with friends or even photos where I donrsquot look good Irsquom comfortable posting them thererdquo Fofani adds ldquoI know a lot of people donrsquot repost or post birthday wishes because itrsquos cringe People have an underlying worry about aesthetics But I think everyone should be true to themselves and post as authentically as possiblerdquoFrom a psychological lens Dr Kedar Tilwe consultant psychiatrist at Fortis Hospital Mulund and Hiranandani Hospital Vashi says that people tend to project an idolised selfimage on social media As itrsquos impossible to have a life in 2025 without social media he explains itrsquos natural for people to be conscious about what they post ldquoEarlier you could exist without constant surveillance But younger generations donrsquot know a life without social media WiFi is like air to them Profiles are judged based on the number of likes on them And you could be known for one post for your entire life People tend to amplify this in their mind They tend to think that no likes on the post mean that they are not liked in real life These amplified thoughts set in anticipated anxietyrdquoSo is not posting the new way to exist on the Internet Gayatri Sapru founder of Folk Frequency and a cultural anthropologist says ldquoItrsquos definitely a new form of existing there is a word for it They call it ambient intimacyrdquo sharing that this is the natural evolution of how we interact with media ldquoWe get it the term ambient intimacy in academia We see it in the journals but itrsquos actually a maturation of media relations Lurking means that you feel at a certain point itrsquos so much a part of your life that you are looking out of a window Thatrsquos how much you are into social media and your content is now just other peoplersquos livesrdquoSapru shares that the assumption that people are lurking on social media platforms because they are anxious shy or lack the selfconfidence to post is not true ldquoItrsquos just how people evolve over time with social mediardquo she saysAnother reason why posting is considered cringe is perhaps because many donrsquot want to be associated with the negative connotations that the term ldquoinfluencerrdquo carries Faisal Farooque a freelance columnist has over 12500 followers on Instagram but doesnrsquot think of himself as an influencer or creator and refrains from posting about his family friends and personal life on any platform ldquoI believe that thoughtful posting brings thoughtful connections I simply started this account because I thought I should express myself to meet likeminded peoplerdquo he says ldquoI know that Instagram is a photo platform but beyond that itrsquos a way to connect and find your communityrdquoWhat Faisal admits to is another revelation Posting is now cringe because people tend to see social media as serious platforms rather than spaces where they talk about their personal lifeSapru says ldquoHow a platform makes people feel and therefore how people express on that platform a huge part of it is guided by creators and the kind of aesthetic they are choosing in that momentrdquoShe explains that that when celebrities donrsquot post about serious issues you immediately see regular users going quiet as well ldquoThis has been written about endlessly how the Kardashians have gone quiet and accounts with 100millionplus followers are posting less and less In fact they only post when they have product launches nowrdquoThis celebrity trend of posting less is signalling that social media is now serious business ldquoItrsquos very corporate now Itrsquos much harder for a regular person to copy that in which case itrsquos easier to just not post about anythingrdquo says SapruAs for the difference between how different generations exist on social media Sapru points out that for millennials and the older generations the Internet came along much later in life and perhaps now keeping up with the latest hashtag or trend feels too much Meanwhile Gen Z and Gen Alpha are curating their content to present an image of themselves ldquoThey are incredibly conscious of the imprint that they are leaving on the Internet and how people look at themrdquo she saysIs the way ahead less posting more lurking That is unlikelyBut as younger generations understand various social media platforms better they know what to post where and how to behave on each platform And this is what we are going to see more of ldquoWhat I see is that there will be more platforms People are actively always looking for the next Instagram or the next Discord What just happened in Nepal referring to the youth electing the prime minister on Discord people really need to pay attention to the fact that younger people know how to fluidly move between all the platforms and how to use them for their perhaps best and worst use casesrdquo