The Death of the “Casual Post”: How Social Media Became a Brand Catalogue

Instagram’s old logo next to its current logo. Image: Alyssa Young (Medium.com)

There was once a time when we would post a blurry photo from a night out without a second thought. Unflattering angles, barely visible, no one gave a care in the world. Social media was more about sharing life as it happened in real time. Over a decade later in 2025, our spontaneous selfie is now one of hundreds, filtered twice with a carefully curated caption. Casual posting is dead, and this tells one thing: social media is not about raw self-expression anymore, it’s a performance.

3 viral BeReal images posted by its users. Image: Pesala Bandara (PetaPixel)

When the app BeReal launched in 2022, it skyrocketed in popularity as it felt like a retaliation against social media’s narrative of being curated and inauthentic. It’s whole premise was to capture a quick snapshot of real life with daily random notifications. As time went on, users then began to lose this concept as they began to delay posts for better lighting, or simply just staging their ‘candid’ moments. Even critics agree that it “still involves a different kind of performance and approach”. Instagram has also seen a rise in the “photo dump” trend, which is a low-effort, seemingly unpolished peek into someone’s life. Even starting the trend of making an entirely new account purely dedicated to these “photo dumps”

Close friends feature on Instagram. Image: TechCrunch

Platforms such as Instagram have been catalysts to this growing trend as its algorithm favours Reels and high-engagement content. Instagram also now has a “close friends” feature when users can share only to certain people of their choice. But this feature is not what it used to be as brands capitalised on it and treat it like an exclusive VIP only lounge, which turns curated closeness into a marketing tactic for loyalty and engagement. This further raises the idea of curating your public image as different to your private, “real” self.

The fact of the matter is, platforms do not reward casual. The posts that gain the most traction are the ones that are curated and visually polished. If the post does not fit this criteria, it will soon disappear into the abyss. And in the digital age where visibility equals relevance and self-worth, casual posting starts to feel like a setup for a social decline.

The shift in focus matters as social media’s original purpose was to connect with the people we know. As time goes on, users begin to think about how they are being perceived by strangers, acquaintances and even their closest friends.

Gone are the days of blurry night out photos and unflattering angles. In this digital age, we have set up a brand catalogue of our lives for other people to see and perceive. Social media is no longer social. We are building the brand and the brand is us.