This Instagram account shows we're guilty of repeating the same poses - Here's my Singapore version
PUBLISHED ONJune 21, 2019 10:25 AMByMelissa Goh
Drop everything and scroll through your Instagram feed now. You'll probably find influencers or friends doing the same cliched poses.
The most common poses are the 'one foot forward', the 'back view', the 'oh look, there's something on the floor, the 'I'll just touch my fringe' and too many others to mention here.
Sometimes these poses are even repeated by different people at the same location.
But hey, I'll be honest and admit, I too am sometimes guilty of looking up for inspirations to zhng my feed, or I'll just end up with my go-to pose: sitting down in the middle of the road; sitting on the grass; sitting down... everywhere.
These cookie-cutter poses are done so often that 27-year-old Emma Agnes, an Alaskan filmmaker and artist, set up an Instagram account @insta_repeat. It has amassed 307,000 followers since its first post last June.
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BvIr97fgACR/[/embed]
The account features popular locations in Alaska and compiling the similar poses consistently repeated by people.
Insta_repeat was initially run anonymously, but Emma later revealed herself in an Instagram Story after being called out by another user who wasn't too happy about the account.
She explained that insta_repeat is her "making (an) objective observation about what (she) sees online" and 'this account is supposed to be funny'.
The photo montages are tagged to the original Instagram accounts and they are absolutely beautiful, but they share a repetitive pattern, such as people seen holding a film camera while posing for the camera.
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BvYVQm6ACLs/[/embed]
The post is accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek caption with the hashtag '#filmsnotdead', suggesting that although they are holding a film camera, the photo is still taken by a digital camera.
This one hits close to home, with photos of holidaymakers on the beach with the sky reflected on the water. Don't we all have a photo like this when we are in Bali?
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BvBOTqwAX2E/[/embed]
And how many of us have been daredevils, standing atop cliffs, inches away from the edge just for the 'gram?
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BsfCwKNAryb/[/embed]
When I saw a montage of a suspension bridge, it reminded me of Singapore's very own MacRitchie Reservoir TreeTop Walk and I decided to create a Singapore version of "Insta repeat".
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BkjeD9Al6cL/[/embed]
The TreeTop Walk is the most photographed spot in MacRitchie Reservoir by locals and tourists alike.
The poses on the suspension bridge are somewhat similar - people are seen with either their back view or facing towards the side. Of course, there are other poses too, but these two are the most common.
While it was fun compiling the photos, it also served as a reminder to me that I am guilty of repeating what others have already done before in hopes of getting the same amount of 'likes'.
Perhaps, it's time to be more creative and less mainstream.