About

Instagram vs. Reality is an observation used in comparative memes that point out the difference between how someone presents themselves on photo-sharing app Instagram vs. how they appear in real life. The meme is similar to What You Think You Look Like vs. What You Actually Look Like in execution, though the setup is usually used in a mocking fashion and is pointed out when content creators present what is deemed an unrealistic representation of their lives on social media.

Origin

The axiom has been popular since the start of Instagram. One of the earliest-known pictures to make a joke about the difference between Instagram and real life was posted to themetapicture^[1] on October 26th, 2012.

Spread

The meme trended periodically over the course of the following decade, appearing in articles and videos on listicle-heavy websites. On October 30th, 2014, Buzzfeed posted a video sketch about the difference between Instagram and real life, gaining over 8.1 million views (shown below).

Articles about the memes have appeared on Ranker,^[2] Buzzfeed,^[3] Popsugar,^[4] and other websites. On November 1st, 2017, a subreddit for the meme was created, gaining over 340,000 subscribers in roughly 18 months.^[5] The subreddit is devoted to body-positivity and showing how people look outside of their posted photos (some top posts shown below).

h3h3 vs. Trisha Paytas

On May 8th, 2019, YouTuber h3h3productions posted a video about the subreddit, gaining over 2.6 million views (shown below).

During the video, he pointed out several comparison photos of Trisha Paytas that were popular on the subreddit, making some disparaging comments about her actual looks (i.e. "Coachella vs. Open Casket Funeral").

In response, Trisha recorded her own video in which she is crying and addressing the claims made by h3h3.

The drama was covered by Keemstar in the same video he covered the ProJared Cheating Scandal.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References