Are you hashtag and selfie obsessed?

If you are hastag and selfie obsessed then have I got the place for you … You need to head over to the Instagram playgrounds that are literally popping up in big cities all over the country.   So I only recently learned about the power of Instagram when I heard about these so called Instagram Influencers who are guiding our culture and telling us what to like and where to be.  Now I am reading about gathering spots for the Instagram obsessed.

These interactive pop-up exhibits are showing up in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities and charging people $20-$40 to essentially take selfies and then hashtag them on Instagram with unique backdrops and flattering lighting.   Pop-up exhibits like The Egg House  in Los Angeles use specific lighting techniques and color schemes to ensure their visitors look their best.  Apparently millennials favorite colors are pink and yellow as it really grabs the attention of social media and stands out so a lot of these pop up exhibits focus on those colors.

I, like many in my age bracket just don’t get it.  We were raised that if you spent too much time looking in a mirror you were vain (which was a horrific thing to be accused of being.)  Today you can be anywhere and people have no shame of taking picture after picture of themselves and posting them to a supposed interested audience.  However Paige Solomon, CEO of the Brooklyn-based exhibit Dream Machine, views social media as an effective marketing tool.  She says …

“You can huff and buff all you want and say, ‘I can’t believe how self-obsessed people are’, but if you’re not designing things in 2018 with the hope that it is shared on social, then I feel like you’re doing a disservice to yourself as a creative, an artist, a business owner.”

So get those duck faces ready and keep your eyes open for the next pop up playground that will be hitting Chicago soon.