Opinion
Why spring break Instagrams are the worst
By Elias Clough ’17
March 31, 2016
Tags opinion
Instagram ruined my spring break. Everyone has probably heard from rowers about how awful rowing can be, but it was not the workouts, early mornings or the torn-up hands that got to me; my happiness and athletic drive was sapped by sunset shots over Punta Cana. My ability to shoulder the workload that rowing demands has always come from a sense of solidarity with my teammates as all of us share the same burden. Within the team bubble, I have found motivation to embrace two weeks of two-a-days. Instagram, as is its insidious design, dragged my focus away from the team and onto the enviable, heavily edited spring breaks of my friends.
With tropical paradises acting as a foil to my rowing experience in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the weather became colder, the workouts longer and I became less willing to meet my coach’s high expectations. Every day, between practices, I scrolled through a myriad of Coronas on the beach, coral reefs and girls in bikinis holding up starfish to the camera and felt resentment toward my sport.
Circumstances in Tennessee only compounded my frustration. When an air conditioning unit on my floor at the Comfort Inn caught fire at 5 am and the whole building had to be evacuated, my friends on Instagram were getting wasted in the Bahamas. When my hamstrings gave out after a hellish sprint workout, they were learning to surf. I tried to delete my social media, force my mind back into the team bubble, but I was addicted. I appealed to reason; I knew that all the pictures I was seeing were enhanced to be more vibrant and appealing, but I was still imagining everyone else’s break through an X Pro II filter.
My experience, in comparison, was gray and exhausting. My mind was constantly somewhere outside of the boat, and my performance suffered. I was demoted from the first boat, which only increased my frustration with rowing. I blamed the sport for its high standards and level of commitment, but I realize, in hindsight, that it was my own fault for obsessing over the pictures that were passing through my feeds. My trip could never have measured up to the perfect “reality” that Instagram teased me with. Even knowing this, however, does not immediately take away all the resentment that I feel towards rowing. Pulling my mind away from other people’s experiences and back into the team bubble, where I can compete, is a difficult and ongoing process. Through my experience as an athlete over spring break, I learned that all of the smiling pictures on Instagram can be a highly effective means of making people miserable.