Instafame - The Adult Version of High School All Over Again?

The more I come across these glam, famous Instagrammers the more I wonder one thing- Is Instafame the new high school fame?

I mean it's basically the same thing. There are hierarchies, there are rules, and, most of all, there are people who gawk and drool over anyone who hits the "Instafame" mark.

You have the regulars- the Instagrammers who have sub par grams with less than 500 followers. They post blah pictures of their Olive Garden pasta and flowers in their backyard. Some of these people have tons of friends in the real world but no idea how to turn their enjoyable personality into virtual profit.

You have the wannabes-The girl who would KILL to be Instafamous. These accounts just continually fall short of hitting the 100k+ mark and are usually filled with tons of hashtags, overly filtered photos, and the occasional slutty selfie.

You have the posers- Some of them might have even hit the Instafame status, thanks to the power of fake followers & buying likes. They copy the best & make everyone else think THEY are the revolutionary. 

You have the Queen B: She's got 150k+ followers, a flamingo pool float, at least one photo in a gingham bikini, up close shots of her Chanel earrings, tonssss of #iwokeuplikethis posts, a shockingly attractive boyfriend (oops, I meant fiance), & group photos of her and her besties on some rooftop bar. She's always jet setting off somewhere & is somehow invited to events like Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NYC even though she lives in small town USA and has zero real world connections. 

In my opinion, Instafamous is just a few letters away from infamous. Is being Instafamous really what it's all about? Have we as a culture graced that dreadful group from high school with an online presence? 

Except now instead of having the cool table in the cafeteria they have photos of pumpkin spice lattes and acai bowls from some trendy breakfast joint in their posh neighborhood. They've upgraded from Abercrombie & Fitch to designers at Barney's. They've replaced the hot jock boyfriend with a handsome accountant, hipster startup guy, or (in the name of female empowerment) dates from Bumble. Instead of daddy's credit card, they have us! 

& we follow each post. We search their usernames daily, fingers crossed we didn't miss anything while we were off in the "real world". We shop their closets with their handy liketoknow.it links and religiously follow their beauty routines.  We read their advice on fashion & dating like it's the Bible. They are the epitome of Millennial adulting and should be praised as so. 

& just like in high school, there's no escaping. These Instafamous girls & guys are everywhere. Except now instead of comparing ourselves to someone with a fake tan & too much lip gloss, we have to compare ourselves to filters, airbrush, & heavenly amounts of bright lighting. The brighter the light, the closer to heaven- I think that's what they say, right? 

I don't mean to downplay the whole social networking experience. Obviously, there are people & brands who rightfully have thousands to millions of followers. It's just that the prom queen* is supposed to get fat after high school, not go on to sign some modeling contract.

*I was prom queen myself so I can make jokes on the subject

As humans, maybe we need this hierarchy. Maybe having all of these accounts to look at fills us with some kind of hope or sense of belonging. As we continue to incorporate sharing & a more communal lifestyle (i.e. Airbnb, Uber Pool, Rent The Runway, Couch Surfing), maybe Instagram is a way for us to revert back to our primitive form of follow the leader. 

If Instafame is anything like high school fame, then we all know how this ends. & us regular people will just have to go on with our non-famous lives. I think we'll turn out just fine.