beware of gifs

you know stories, right? i'm not talking about books, thats so last century. i'm talking about social media stories. while it first started on SnapChat, a quick way to share an image or video with all your friends for just 24 hours, practically every social media interface adopted this feature. Instagram, FaceBook, Twitter, TikTok, all have stories or some variation of it. on Instagram most of the time people add text or gifs to embellish their stories though. these gifs are offered by Giphy and use an algorithm to determine which gifs you are most likely to use. simple, right?

Kate Wagner in 404 page not found writes about the nostalgia she feels on the internet these days. as a 28 year old woman using Instagram stories, Wagner is shown gifs with sparkles and sassy messages about being beautiful, taking her back to the days of Myspace and internet dress up games. Wagner knows that these are being shown to her because of her age -- and clearly her gender identity -- but does the algorithm really understand her?

so I went on a mission to see what Instagram/Giphy think about me, a 19 year old femme. i'm shown Ariana Grande and coffee, two things that my demographic would think i'm like totally obsessed with *wink. the other half of the gifs are cute cartoon animals and hearts -- there's a pattern here.

my most recent instagram post is of my partner and I, also the top person I interact with is them -- mostly sending a picture of a cute animal I found on the discover page. so, what do we think? ok clearly one part of the algorithm is based off of my demographic and the second part is based off of my patterns on Instagram itself. but is this true to who I am?

so Instagram thinks that i'm a femme presenting young adult in a relationship. I mean yes all of that is true, but the stereotypes that all I am has to do with my relationship is really shoved down my throat the more that I notice it. Hattie Garlic's article Why Gender Stereotypes are Perpetuated on Instagram touches on the differences in hers and her husbands Instagram recommendations.

Garlick mainly posts about her children whereas her husband posted a bit about the kids, kitchens he designed, and his growing vinyl collection. so their online persona's were very different and played into some gender stereotypes that Instagram algorithms love.

from the outside, the Garlick's instagrams portrayed a woman all about her family and a dimensional man with passions and a family in the back. a facebook analysis from 2013 proved that femme presenting people tend to use social media to maintain social relationships whereas masculine presenting people use it for information on their favourite habits like sports or vinyl collecting.

it's uncomfortable even writing about the gendered divisions in social media, because it seems so ridiculous that these stereotypes are still relevant. but the way that we present ourselves on social media is reinforced by the algorithms that cater to us.

masculine presenting people feel less inclined to post about their relationships because of what is shown to them about what they SHOULD be interested in. femme presenting people are shown images of family and love to make them consider how their social media presence reflects their relationships.

"I, uh, i don't really post on Instagram but when I do it's really just for comedic effect [and] for people to look at what i'm doing," says masculine presenting Instagram user of the last seven years J.P. "it brightens up my day when I see something I like and helps me stay up to date on the games I play."

J.P has three posts on his Instagram, one showing his favourite movie and the other two showing his favourite hobby. he does not post about his family or significant other and says he "really doesn't feel the need to." maybe if his recommended page was more diverse and family oriented, it would make him feel more accepted to share pictures of his family and loved ones. I totally think that being exposed to other masculine presenting accounts that highlight love and family would help take down the stigma that they are emotionless.

I don't know what my future on Instagram is anymore. I want to say that I will try to break out of this expectation about what I should post and be interested in based off my demographic, but the expectation that I can end gender based stereotyping on social media platforms i'm on is unreasonable and just adds even more online anxiety. all that anyone can really expect and want out of social media is to not feel judged and free to express themselves. is that too much to ask? social media is already so judgy, it would just be nice to feel like the app's you are on aren't in on that judgement too. for now I think I'll just stop using gifs on my story.

Related: body image issues caused by Instagram.