Claudia Winkleman has said she quit Instagram because she got tired of the “showing off” and suddenly realised how “bizarre” it was.
The Strictly Come Dancing presenter said the fact that people use the picture-sharing app to elicit envy in others is “totally and utterly odd” and that it made her feel as if she were spying on other people’s lives, instead of living her own.
She said in her Sunday Times column that after having a look on the site she “had an odd feeling, a bit like I’d spied on people. Like I was outside, staring at what they were doing. Instead of, well, doing something myself”.
She added: “Instead of living, I was watching other people living. And worse (here’s where you’re going to hate me), they were stopping what they were doing and capturing and sharing instead of living it, too.”
Winkleman, 46, said she decided Instagram “is simply showing off”.
“It’s, ‘Look at me!’; it’s, ‘Isn’t life fantastic?’; it’s, ‘I can’t believe how great I look!’; it’s, ‘Wow, look at my thigh gap’; it’s ‘We’re still in love!’ — and it’s bizarre,” she said.
Winkleman, who is concerned her column may be unpopular, said although the bragging on Instagram may be humble, the bottom line is that “people post so others ooh and aah”.
“But keep it to yourself,” she concluded. “Or if you refuse and post, shield yourself as best you can.”