Page 10 - Unleashed BMM 2019-2020

When Polls Take a Toll

By Deepti Parmar

nstagram is a photo and video sharing social networking site which is
very popular among teens and adults nowadays. The most recent and
Ithe one that has caught the fancy of people is the “poll feature”. This
feature allows users to post two options on their story and their followers
have to the choice of opting for one of them. The poll system shows which
of the options has won majority of the votes. It started with normal choices
but soon became a way of dictating life. Users would want their followers
choose everything for them- from breakfast to dinner, from their clothes
to their reading preferences. However, the overuse of this feature has put
people into trouble; doing things that their followers told them to do.
While some see Instagram polls as a worn out feature, teens around the
country often describe it as an “outright thirst trap”. Merin Wilson, a 19-
year-old pursuing her degree in psychology sees Instagram polls as an ex-
periment to see the “perfect way to influence her life”. “Why push through
life settling on shitty choices for myself when I can leave those choices to
every other person out there?” said Merin Wilson.
For a whole day, she gives her Instagram followers a chance to vote on
each and every decision she needs to make. Here is how her followers on
the social networking platform decided her day would look like. why she would want to follow their decisions when they can’t even see
her, “I believe they love me and I really don’t feel like cheating on them.
Starting of her day: They are a part of my family and I adhere to every word I say” said Merin.
She opens her eyes, feeling that unknown hint of disappointment she feels She ended up doing something she didn’t want to do- have pizza for her
each morning, and began pondering over her breakfast choices: miserable lunch. The reason is pretty obvious.
porridge or pitiful oats? But then she realized, today isn’t like any other
day. Today, she has 1,500 “good hearted” followers making her decisions. Evening:
Merin went to gym almost every day. But today, she can’t decide that. She
opens her account and asks her “family” to decide whether she should go
to gym or stay in bed. And to her misery, her followers who “loved her”
voted that she should stay in bed. She was upset because her routine was
disturbed. She was finally getting use to the routine and now she will have
to start again.
She went to her room and watched 13 reasons why again. She was happy
watching the series because she needed that kind of emotional release. She
was very unhappy as to how her day turned out. The whole day she didn’t
step out of her house, stayed on bed all day, didn’t take a shower, ate junk
food and didn’t work out. All because she wanted her followers to be
happy whereas they don’t even care if she disobeys their decisions. “I don’t
know. I guess it’s just addiction. Addicted to the fact that thousands of
people are out there who love you. And you can do anything that will make
them happy” said Merin, when asked why would she want to do anything
that makes her unhappy.
She started her day by questioning her followers to choose between: Get People get addicted when they know there is someone else who’s taking
up and shower or Stay in bed. She decided to stay in as 51% opted for the wrong decisions for them. They feel satisfied for blaming their so called
latter option. After an hour, she was bored and thought of watching Netflix “supporters” for all the bad events that happen in their life. People like to
and decided to watch The Office. The series depicts the everyday lives of blame their insecurities on another.
office employees in Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin “Getting young people to cut down on their social media usage is very
company. She was just getting started when she realised that for today her important similarly like the other health campaigns which revolve around
followers get to decide everything. She again came up with two options: smoking and drinking” , says Royal Society for Public Health. The 2017
The Office or 13 reasons why (a tragic story of a girl named Hannah). #StatusofMind report highlighted a range of potential negative effects of
social media, including anxiety, depression, negative body image, poor
Sadly, ended up seeing 13 Reasons Why! sleep and what is termed as FOMO (fear of missing out).
Merin binge watched a whole season of 13 Reasons Why and was totally It’s time that we finally realize how addictive social media can be. Social
exhausted. She was not a fan of emotional stuff, but still decided to watch media is a great way of socializing and communicating, the limits should
13 Reasons Why because her followers said so. be till there only. It’s scary to know that someday you might want your
followers to choose the most important decision in your life and they will
Lunch time: end up choosing the wrong option. You should not let Instagram or any
She was hungry and decided to have lunch. She was currently on a diet other social networking site dictate your life. Knowing the limits of using
and wanted to have salad. During this whole episode, I was curious as to social media and its affects, is the key to have less chaos in your life.

10 | UNLEASHED | 2019