Was Cara Delevingne's Instagram image really offensive?
The model and actress published this weekend a photograph on her profile that has unleashed the unexpected viral controversy
Instagram has gone through all the possible stages that a social network can experience: innocent beginnings as a diary, perception of economic wealth, use as an advertising and marketing tool, a means of personal and artistic expression... Anyway, you know. And although a remarkable number of users show a hypercalculated image, quite a few celebrities (perhaps due to their status) allow themselves the luxury of showing a more personal side. One of the most outstanding, both by projection and by number of users, is Cara Delevingne, who this weekend has experienced the penultimate viral controversy that seems to have caught her by surprise.
Two days ago, she published a personal snapshot, very much the type that any other anonymous person would share without much repercussion. In it, a girl reading sitting on some steps with a stack of books at her feet. Framing the set, the following sentence: "A girl liked to read so much that she forgot how to take a selfie." And end. The first interpretation for many of the more than 40 and a half million followers was a kind of wake-up call that from time to time it is not bad to hear, especially in an era in which mobiles are extensions of the hands and leaving house without them is (almost) inconceivable. A “stop worrying for a while about the physical image you project and open yourself to other experiences”; advice from a mother or best friend that, however, did not sit too well.
As reported by Teen Vogue, there were many users who felt offended by Cara's message: in her opinion, the actress and now writer seemed to be placing herself above the rest, cataloging those who read as morally superior, while assuming that whoever takes pictures of himself is not as smart as the first group. Faced with the barrage of comments, Cara edited the caption of the snapshot to explain. “Wow! The negative response to this photo is brutal! I'm not trying to say that I'm better than anyone. It's a nice reminder to myself and everyone else: the power of getting lost in a book." Yes, something much more innocent than what different users interpreted. The question is the following: if it is really fully accepted that both positions (reading and taking selfies) are not incompatible, because even Cara herself combines publications of both types, what is the reason for this offense?
The answer seems clear: that in the world (and on Delevingne's Instagram account) there are so many millions of users that there must be opinions of all kinds and, whatever the artist does, someone will always be personally offended. But perhaps, and just perhaps, the lesson to be drawn from this unexpected controversy is that in the voracious and frenetic world of social media, nothing should be taken too seriously.
