Letting Instagram followers control my day
By posting polls hourly on my Instagram, my followers dictated how I spent my Tuesday, with countless twists and turns. SAM ANDRUS, Photo Editor.
A typical Tuesday for me consists of three main points of attack: business communication class, dinner with my boyfriend and as many naps as possible spliced between those two events. For a person that consistently overworks themselves in school and can barely preheat the oven without calling their mother for help, that Tuesday is about the only slice of sanity I have in the week.
But, let’s say I had to add in a few more tasks to that list; maybe throw in a makeup session, bake some cookies, plunge in an arctic pool and jumble in five more activities all in the timeslot of one day?
Well, that’s how my Tuesday was this week. And it was all thanks to my lovely 832 Instagram followers — who dictated pretty much every decision I needed to make for a day.
Why I decided to do this, I really can’t remember; after my experience, I’m regretting my initial thoughts that this would be a great idea. I always watched YouTubers like Danielle Carolan or Aspyn Ovard, both adored by fans of the vlogger genre on the site, and I thought their lives must be so easy. But, the truth is, having people tell you how to live your life while documenting each and every minuscule detail is exhausting.
Nevertheless, from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., I embraced the romanticized life of an influencer and let my followers decide how I spent my day by posting Instagram polls almost hourly.
In the morning, I started simple with my first poll by asking if I should get a fall-themed drink at Starbucks or make a latte at home with my over-used Nespresso machine. Thankfully, my followers read my mind (or maybe my pumpkin obsession is just a little too obvious) and with 62% of the votes, I headed over to Starbucks.
The odds were in my favor, and I felt great. This was going to be so easy — or so I thought.
After an hour of happily sipping my coffee while doing homework, I posted my second poll: I asked if I should pound on a full-face of makeup or go au naturel for the day. With 54% of the votes, it was time to crack open my fancy Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadow palette and begin my masterpiece.
At first, I was dreading the process, convinced I was wasting makeup that should only be used for special occasions. But it wasn’t long before I found myself singing along to Taylor Swift’s “Style” with my foundation brush as my microphone; I felt like a kid using a coloring book as I padded luminescent glitter to my eyelids.
With my polls at a solid start, it was time to figure out what I should wear to my one and only class of the day: pajamas or a dress?
It’s important to note my high school had a uniform that consisted of a plaid skirt and polo shirt, so as a college student, my sense of style is fairly limited to a baggy sweatshirt and Lululemon leggings. I was hopeful my followers, the force behind my decision-making, would pick the dress option, so I’d have the opportunity to spice up my routine. However, by a narrow 51% of the votes, the majority picked pajamas.
Though I’ll admit I dress leisurely for class, there exists a substantial difference between comfy attire and sleepwear. Regardless of my personal hesitations, I left for class garbed in the sloppiest pair of grey sweatpants I own, my favorite Disneyland sweatshirt — which I exclusively wear at home — and my UGG purple platform slippers. Sure, on campus I got strange looks from the average passerby and my feet were sweating from the shearling fuzziness of my slippers, but at least I could say I was at my peak of comfort.
After class, it was yet again time for another poll; I had my followers ponder if I should bake Pillsbury pumpkin cookies or scour the halls of Party City to purchase ridiculous Halloween decor. I expected them to vote for Party City, so I could buy loads of balloons and an excessive amount of spooky adornments for my apartment, but alas, with 70% of the votes I was peer-pressured to buy cookies.
Little did I know, this one task would lead to a full-fledged mission: I headed to Ralph’s, but there were no slice-and-bake Halloween cookies to be found. My heart almost stopped.
I frantically contacted my friend who recently purchased the cookies, and heeding her advice, I decided to check Target next. I sped along Chapman Avenue toward 17th Street, but after yet another trek, it appeared as if the dessert was nowhere to be found there either.
With it being October, I knew these cookies were a hot commodity, but I couldn’t let my followers down. Unrelenting worries raced through my head, and I called my mom in a panic. Before giving up, I carefully checked the aisles of Target again. Lo and behold, behind the milk cartons, I found the holy grail: three boxes of pumpkin Pillsbury slice-and-bake cookies. I snatched them from the cabinet and snapped a photo of them in my cart, along with three other boxes of Pillsbury ghost cookies. Because why not?
With the sun about to go down, I posted another poll while going to the Barnes & Noble next door to my apartment. Should I buy a romance novel or an intense thriller page-turner? A romance was typical Megan, but a thriller would have me never turning off my nightlight while in bed. Thankfully, my followers gave me a break, and with 54% of the votes, the romance, titled “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren, was my next beach read.
Finally, back at my apartment, I knew I needed to end things with a bang. I had already planned on doing a poll on what I wanted to eat for dinner and what Halloween movie I should watch, but I needed to think of something spicy — something intriguing and unpredictably outside my comfort zone. So, I posted a poll asking if I should learn how to skateboard with 15 minutes on the clock or do a late-night cannonball at the pool in my apartment building.
Even though I am known for being a waterbug and loving the pool, I have always wanted to learn how to skateboard. To be fair, I failed at rollerblading when I was eight and faceplanted whenever I tried to ice skate during the holiday season, but who knows? Skateboarding could be my big break. Sadly, the people spoke their minds, and with 70% of the votes, I put on my Jack’s Surfshop swimsuit and headed down to the unheated pool at 8 p.m.
Plunging in the pool wasn’t that bad, once I hyped myself up by playing Drake’s “Nice For What” in the elevator. I was freezing cold and needed my boyfriend on standby with a towel and warm hug, but it was also really freeing. As I hopped into a boiling hot shower after my dive, I contemplated how much I got done in one day, and the fact that I would have never done all of this on a typical Tuesday.
As I curled up with my Barefoot Dreams blanket while eating a Chipotle burrito bowl (85% of my followers voted for Mexican food), I recalled a quote I had heard on TikTok from influencer Jenna Palek, who runs a podcast called Fun on Weekdays.
“Listen up: if you wait for the weekend to have fun, you are missing 261 days of your life every single year,” said Tiktok influencer Jenna Palek. “I get it, we work corporate jobs, but we are not living to work. We are living for moments, memories, friendships, adventures, but most importantly ourselves. No day is guaranteed, and I want to live a life that I did to the fullest. Welcome to Fun on Weekdays.”
Fun on Weekdays serves as a tagline for Palek’s podcast, but now I see that it’s also dual-faceted as a reminder to create windows of personal time for oneself even throughout the work week.
Throughout this experiment, I often struggled with feeling forced to complete many of these activities, but ultimately am grateful to my followers for curating me a day I’ll never forget. From my morning Starbucks to the ultimate Halloween evening filled with loads of candy corn and the film “Casper Meets Wendy” (which 59% of the people voted for), I can confidently say the experience was worth it.
Would I do it again? Absolutely not. But I remain incredibly thankful for the 120 Pillsbury Halloween cookies I can munch on, so that was, indeed, a plus.