Is it just me or did Halloween start really early this year? People have been talking about their costumes for weeks. Or maybe I've just noticed the costume dramas more than usual because I’m not dressing up this year? As traditional as pumpkin carving or trick or treating, my enduring memory of Halloween celebrations, particularly through uni, is the last minute scramble for a costume in the few days before the big spooktacular. It's always been a massive production in America, but what's happened over here to make everyone suddenly start taking their costumes quite so seriously?
Thanks to social media and the pressure of the double tap, more thought may be required before you rummage for the last pair of two pound fangs in the fancy dress shop and call it a good’un. What if you upload a picture and it doesn’t even break 11 likes threshold? THIS IS THE REAL HORROR STORY.
This kind of social media shunning is like the modern day version of a classic embarrassing dream where you’re stood in the playground naked while people point and laugh. A lot of the pressure that accompanies social media is, I think, to do with how public it is. Even though rationally, you have some idea of the number of people who will be looking at your content and who they are; if your profile is public then the opportunity is there for anyone and everyone on the internet to be looking at it, joining in on the joke. Of course in practice this is very unlikely but it’s not impossible – earlier this monthwe read about the story of Maggie Goldenberger, whose private and jokey photo somehow found its way onto Reddit in 2012, turning her into a widely used internet meme. Ermahgerd.
If the internet is a numbers game then it’s fair to say the likelihood of your Instagram snap turning into a popular meme is preeeetty slim. But knowing that these things happen does feed the paranoia-fuelled fire of worry that accompanies social media use for a lot of people. Even if you discount the snowball of internet strangers’ mockery, just accounting for the people you do know is a worry. Rationally speaking, no-one liking your Instagram pictures is hardly a slap in the face, but your paranoid and self-conscious brain doesn’t think rationally, it imagines that everyone on their followers list has already seen it and thinks they are ugly and dumb and smell bad and don’t have any friends (self-conscious brains are pretty mean.) Dont' believe me? Studies show that Instagram induces even more self-loathing than Facebook - the original FOMO generator.
So, back to Halloween costumes. How much of our modern-day preparedness is down to our collective emotional growth and getting our lives together (LOL yeah right) and how much is down to needing a good picture to show what a good time we’ve had? If you’re going for the classic Mean Girls sexy cat/slutty nurse/somehow-naked mouse costume then you need to look shit-hot in order to stand out from the crowd. If you’re seeking wider approval (because you’re Cady Heron and understand Halloween) then you’re competing for laughs, approving nods at your originality, or pretty much grossing people out. Either way, good luck to you, but while you’re off polishing your claws – don’t forget to spend time hanging out with your fellow creatures of the night and not just taking selfies in the bathroom of the bar… Because costumes are for life (yours) and not just for Instagram.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.