A few years back, I signed up for Instagram in order to enjoy family photos and maybe share occasional pictures of my garden. This went well until Instagram figured out that I am a grandmother of a certain age, and started clogging my feed with ads aimed at what its algorithm perceives to be the concerns of my demographic.
Just today, I had to wade through messages telling me that I need wrinkle cream, a more supportive bra, sleep gummies, a mascara for aging lashes, an adult sleep sack, exercises aimed at seniors, a serum that will take 15 years off my face, a pillowcase guaranteed to prevent wrinkles, pills that will reduce bloating and hot flashes, mushroom coffee, a supplement that will help me to lose 45 pounds, teeth whiteners, a product to make grey hair shine, and a cortisol supplement.
Has the algorithm met any women my age? Not everyone is trying to look younger. I’m not saying I no longer care about my appearance – vanity dies hard – but, most of the time, I am too busy reading, writing, gardening, walking, helping with grandkids, getting together with friends, spending time with family – in short, enjoying retirement, to concern myself with aging eyelashes. (And has no one told the algorithm I am a tea drinker? Also, if I were to lose 45 pounds, I would be in the hospital.)
Sure, I would accept a product that that promised to make my half-grown-out hair grow faster. And, if you want to advertise chocolate, I am your target audience. But, mostly, I just want the haranguing to stop. Aging is not negotiable, yet these ads work very hard to make us women of a certain age feel that aging is shameful, and can and should be pushed back by an endless stream of products.
Spoiler alert: We will age. More or less gracefully. Less, if we let these ads get to us.
And how about the ads that require the viewer to watch a "short video"? I fell for this only once. Okay. Maybe twice. These short videos are up to a half-an-hour long, and generally consist of a guy in a white coat, claiming to be a doctor, singing his own praises and describing his life-changing discovery in excruciating detail.
Do not go there. There is no way to get to the punchline without watching the whole thing. (And the punchline will not be worth it.) If you’re not careful, you just might be found with your cold, dead hand clutching your phone, as an endless video plays on and on.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Here’s another piece of unsolicited advice. Don’t buy clothing advertised on Instagram (or Facebook). Sure, it looks good in the ads, but you will likely wind up stuck with a flimsy, wrongly sized, unwearable, and unreturnable item. So, do as I say, not as I did.
And don’t get me started on parenting advice. Am I getting these messages because I have grandchildren? Too late for me. I’m not raising my grands—just hanging out with them. But I feel for the young parents who are barraged with advice—often conflicting—about the “correct” way to do nearly everything. Leave them alone, for God’s sake. Most of them have good instincts, and, in any event, there is no “perfect” way to raise children.
Before ceasing this rant, I will confess that I am occasionally drawn in by the endless recipes that appear in my feed, and I will sometimes go so far as to use the “save” function to hang on to these. This is pretty silly, given that I have so little interest in cooking, but it does demonstrate the power of the beautiful photos. I confess I have never once gone back to look at any of the recipes. In fact–here’s a little secret–I have no idea where saved items are stored. Are they in an undisclosed location with Dick Cheney?
Just in case I choose to look over my lost recipes, can anyone tell me how to get to them without having to deal with him?
Please.
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
