Even Homes are on Social Media

I can't remember when my mum got her Facebook account. But when she did, I started having to censor myself. That's when I moved to Instagram.

It didn't help because she went there too. She was even more aggressive on it. Whatever posted there, became a topic for IRL conversations. I felt very policed over everything there. Also, close friends list didn't exist back that. Or the concept of a finsta (fake instagram).

I was in my mid-20s. That was barely 10 years ago.

Eventually I had to do the most sensible but horrible thing a child could do to their parent (on the internet). I blocked her. I gave her some previews by cross-posting on Facebook whenever I felt like it was safe enough to do so (like for things she knew about, or for when I'm traveling alone).

I say all this because the most shocking account on social media I have ever came across is my mother's. Not the cats, not the dogs, not the babies, but my mother. Don't worry, I unblocked her after I got married. I'm a big girl now!

But it's such an interesting phenomenon I'd witnessed and participated in over the years. Everything needs a social media account these days. I mean - EVERYTHING. It's no longer enough to have just two accounts: one that is you, and a Finsta or whatever separate rant account that is closer to your actual personality but less curated or ✨ aesthetically pleasing ✨.

As people's lives evolve, so do their need to keep parts of their lives separate. There's your own account for you - your personality, your self - then there's a separate one for your cat or dog or child(ren) that you have decided to welcome in your home, then another one for a side hustle/art/travel/food/writing because hey! That's a different personality! That has its own AUDIENCE and I don't wanna spam my followers with my new venture but if my friends and family members who follow me on my OG MAIN ACCOUNT want to support my side hustle/art/travel/food/writing accounts then they can do so. In fact, I will now use the collaborative posts feature so I can cross-post from my other accounts to my main account. SUCK IT!

Now, there's a new-ish genre of content that, given my age and the life stage that the people around me are in, has become more mainstream. And that's home content. And I don't mean like, things to do in the home, cooking, cleaning bla bla - although all those can be part of home content. I mean, an instagram account dedicated to building and maintaining an apartment and then showcasing said apartment.

Like I said, these are not new. I used to pore over Home & Living and SquareRooms magazines because I love looking at how people style their homes. I love Youtube channels like Never Too Small and Design Anthology because they showcase small apartments that seem to be the norm for us in Singapore and abroad.

The difference is in where these content are coming from. People are not waiting around to be featured in a home magazine or youtube channel. They are opening up their homes on the internet to be admired (or judged) by others, on their own. And for most people I know, their home accounts are usually anonymous so the focus is on their abode, not them. Although, if they appear on your "accounts to follow" radar or that you've been to the said apartment, you know whom the apartments belong to (the government, duh! They are the landlord, and you're just paying for a 99-year lease).

To be clear, I don't hate it at all. In fact, I think, if you're going to spend an upwards of half-a-million dollars on a 3-bedroom apartment in buttfuck nowhere (sorry, friends in Tengah), then another 50 thousand dollars on renovations plus all the mental and emotional load from the time you paid the 10 dollars fee PER APPLICATION to HDB, to selecting a unit in a neighbourhood that doesn't even exist yet, to deciding which tile (or laminate?) works best with your Japandi theme, and all the way to finally sleeping in the bed you had to buy from JB because it's too expensive to buy one in Singapore and you've already emptied your savings and retirement on this fucking apartment, you might as well FLAUNT IT.

Live HARD and LOUD, and I mean like, why have a mediocre apartment? Make this a big fucking deal. Make this apartment so fabulous, so amazing, that you wouldn't want to leave.

Because you can't.

I bring this up because it's a reminder to myself that after secondary school, our paths diverge and everyone's at different life stages even when we remain in denial and think we are at the same life stages. And hey, if you're in the "normal" life stage where you're getting a home and the kids and furniture from JB, it's fine! We're humans and it's okay to live our lives differently, yet find the common thread that connects us all: getting excited over SG60 vouchers.

Now go back to posting about that niche you carved out of the cabinet that sits flushed against the wall by your door so that you can put keys and other trinkets in it.

If I do see another strawberry matcha latte post though.....

Post Script: I had to look up how to apply for a BTO because the last and only time I did this, I was barely 25 and apparently lots of things have changed since then. And from what I've witnessed of people I know going through the process, I'm glad I'm moving the hell out of the country and not have to deal with this. I have alternative trials and tribulations but that's a story for another day.

I am NOT looking forward to all the targeted ads and recommended content that are going to pop up everywhere on the internet (renovations? Parenting? Cute little family-owned furniture store?) because I opened the HDB website via google search. Privacy policies? FUCK THAT.

For transparency sake: I did have a finsta which I haven't logged into since 2018 (it was my first ever instagram account that I was too lazy to clean up so I started removing followers and directed them to my current main account). I also had an account specifically for baking which, again, I have not logged into since 2019. And I had an art/creativity account to track My Artist's Way "journey" which I gave up on and turned the account into... a possible future account to document my time in my new city - eeek! So altogether, I have 4 accounts: 2 extinct, 1 dormant and 1 active. Yes, instagram accounts are basically volcanoes.