Am I Too Old For Instagram?

I asked myself this question three years ago when I opened an account.

My teenage daughter's first reaction was, "What are you doing there?" The emphasis was on "you."

"Let's see," I replied, secretly feeling as if I was suddenly wearing bare feet and consuming energy drinks. Perhaps my daughter was also afraid that I would post selfies from home in the future, with the help of a filter on which I would see colorful butterflies over mine It never got that far, of course, if only because I don't know how to do it.

Anke Schipp

Editor in the "Life" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

  • Follow I follow

    All in all, I'm a largely passive user.

    I follow 196 accounts, have 105 subscribers and have posted eleven posts so far;

    the last of them accidentally on my daughter's account, which triggered a moderate crisis at home and led to my keeping my hands off the post for the time being.

    So what am I doing on the social network as a woman over 40?

    Who are the people who influence me on Instagram?

    Do I even allow myself to be influenced at an age when you actually pretty much know what you want and what not?

    The accounts to which I have subscribed are a mixed bag: I follow the German quality media, the New York Times, girlfriends, other mothers, the Royal Family, my sister.

    But also accounts of women who would be called influencers.

    On closer inspection, I notice that most of them are over 40.

    They include fashion icons like Inès de la Fressange (63) and Iris Apfel (99), Hollywood actresses like Reese Witherspoon (45), Jennifer Garner (49), Julia Roberts (53) and Julianne Moore (60) and comedians like Amy Schumer (40) and Celeste Barber (39), TV stars like Barbara Schöneberger (47) and Carolin Kebekus (41).

    Less poses, less pouty lips

    What distinguishes these over 40 influencers from the many thousands of young women who present themselves on Instagram every day? It is noticeable that the older ones usually do not do what the young at least very often do: look at the camera with poses and pouty lips. Roughly speaking, they deliver content instead of make-up tips. Well-known actresses who look dazzling do that too; they present books (Witherspoon), cook (Garner) or send political messages like, in their rare posts, Julia Roberts. For a user of the same age as me, it makes it approachable. It makes you feel good when a Hollywood star like Julianne Moore suddenly notices during a live conversation that her picture is frozen and she frantically asks her assistant: "Am I frozen?"

    The Australian comedian Celeste Barber gets to the heart of the "gap" between U-40 and O-40 without words. She recreates glamorous photos and videos of young models and influencers lounging bare-bones on the vegetable shelf in the supermarket. Barber, not quite as slim and slim as our children's role models, imitates them and thus takes the whole Insta fuss to absurdity. With success that can be seen in her eight million followers. But you shouldn't be fooled, even barber switches short make-up tutorials with a cosmetics brand in between, because even they are likely to depend on influencer marketing.

    "It's difficult to stand up and pose as a grown woman."

    Are influencers over 40 on a tightrope walk because their followers are more critical? Called Annette Weber in Munich, whose blog Glamometer is one of the most successful German fashion blogs and which she also presents on Instagram. The former editor-in-chief of Instyle magazine describes herself and her target group in the social networks as the "adults". The majority of her subscribers are between 35 and 45 years old. "You can't advertise a coat for 18-year-old followers that costs 5000 euros. "