Sometimes I Do Misuse The Repost Button on Instagram

A simple article explaining the thoughts and reasoning behind my reposts.

Hi America.

I’ve been a Twitter veteran since the age of 14. The summer of 2016 was the first time I joined the app that sported a blue bird as a logo and thrived off discourse and drama. A week before the last day of 8th grade, an old friend of mine took his life during school hours and it changed the course of mine forever. How fragile life was. I used Twitter as an outlet to just say what I was feeling, as Tumblr had ran its course on my phone.

During that summer, more death ensued. Notable cases of fatal police brutality like Philando Castile and Eric Garner had flooded my timeline. At that time I worked as a youth camp counselor at the local Boys & Girls Club in a run down, abandoned elementary school. I was retweeting and tweeting all summer long about my beliefs, what I wanted to advocate for and where to find the next protest. At the ripe at of 14, I was becoming more radicalized, forming my own thoughts and opinions long after being influenced by my parents and other adults in my community for so long. I believe exposure to Twitter had some part in shaping who I am today.

Later on within this decade, more social media apps have been adapting to Twitter’s format such as reposting, or known before as “retweets” which allows users to share another person’s post with their own followers, sharing information and showing support while crediting the original creator. I started using Instagrams repost feature which has become more visible to people’s feeds.

Below are some my reposts from recent and what I was thinking when hitting the repost button:

Let’s Face Each Other & Not The DJ!

Up until now, I’ve recently been finding myself facing the DJ at the parties and clubs I go to. Typically because most DJ sets and parties I go to are thrown by my friends so I kinda feel more comfortable doing that or being behind the booth with them. All I know is when I feel ready to pursue music in the broader lens of DJ’ing and producing, nobody better look me because I will definitely mess up out of nervousness. There was a time recently at Northern Lights, I turned around and faced my friend at the decks and we made awkward eye contact which I thought was funny since he makes fun silly faces sometimes. In my head I was like “I definitely need to stop doing that and dance more!!” They could also be feeling nervous as well.

Why Do We Still Allow This?

I people watch on the daily and have a huge interest in psychology/human behavior. People in the comments were saying that people are drawn to “confident people no matter how bad their behavior, surround themselves around people they’re doing better than to feel more superior.” Growing up in social justice spaces, we didn’t really let that slide. Instead of complaining of the actions of one person that seems to be affecting someone/multiple people and not doing anything about it, that person gets checked with the quickness. Letting the behavior go on ends up breeding these self-centered and harmful individuals.

Sometimes I Am Gullible.

Not gonna lie, I thought artists actually meant it when they said we were the loudest city at a concert. I was today years old when I found out that artists really say that get the concert more hype and fun which I can’t complain about.

Please Someone Just Take One For The Team.

Self explanatory. I don’t need the NSA or the FBI come knocking at my door. I got work in the morning.

I Am Opting Out. Thank you.

I recently started coming to the conclusion that I need to stop fighting the desire to have kids and to be a mother/wife. I don’t have it in me in the slightest. Growing up in a extreme religious household made me believe that it had to be my destiny no matter what. I don’t want to get married, give birth and be anyone’s anything. I want to be myself, and that’s ok.

Humanity And Its Darkness.

Recently in EMDR Therapy, I’ve been talking to my therapist about how I feel the weight of my and everyone else’s world on my shoulders. It’s hard to just live in my world, as I have to make sure everyone’s ok in theirs. I’ve been subject to doomscrolling on the weekends as that’s the one thing I have the energy for after completing tasks. Marvin Gaye discusses the inspo for his song “What’s Going On?”, as he was watching the Vietnam War on the news. People being massacred, families losing loved ones, all in the name of greed and War. It would be sad to tell Marvin that things haven’t changed as much.

I Need To Lock In.

Back in December I reached out to Earl Sweatshirt’s team in a cold email and got accepted for a media pass to take photos at his concert. It was my first time being in the photo pit at a big concert venue and I was kinda scared. It did also make me feel important as I saw some folks who weren’t fond of me in the back of the crowd while I had a front row view of the entire show. Even got to meet some of the rappers after the show. I was the only woman photographer in the pit and had my little Canon rebel film camera on me. The other dudes had at least 2 different cameras on them, all high-tech and expensive. They also weren’t friendly and none had talked to me or even said hello except one cool guy named Pablo. My photos did turn out bad but it was an experience to learn from.

Black Women, Get In The Booth NOW!

I’ve been a big fan of PINKPANTHERESS since she started posting her music on TikTok. She was anonymous and didn’t post her face back in 2020. To see how much she’s thriving and even winning prestigious awards within a 5 year span was pretty big to me. There had been times last year where someone I was with felt way too comfortable shitting on and harshly insulting Black women who did absolutely nothing and were just minding their business, indulging in their creative hobbies. I’ve been having that little nagging voice replay in my head recently as I’ve been too scared to post about my interests and my art, to indulge in them publicly. I learned that it doesn’t matter what I do, people will feel a way regardless even if I’m just standing there and breathing simply because I’m Black and a Woman. This year I plan to be more open with DJ’ing, producing music, making art, photography and writing more poetry.

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk.

IG: @yslyatta