As a relatively new user, I would follow a lot of, lets say, good looking folks. I quickly realized that it had a huge detrimental effect on my self perception and image. Now I mostly follow friends and people I know, and maybe a few politicians but very few celebrities and such.
I usually say, if you have social media, follow people who create stuff and who create stuff just for the sole purpose of creating something. People who aren't interested in being richer. People who don't even have the slightest interest in their own ego. Why? One: Because they are capital-t true artists. And, if we are on social media, we should be interested in people who create for a living. People who, for heaven's sake, aren't spending their day consuming away. Two: Because we have a tendency to unconsciously consume things every day. What we unconsciously consume day in and day out has a significant impact on how we view the world and ourselves. And the way we think about ourselves and the world, that is what indicates and determines our fate. So steer away from the news, corporations, etc, and follow people, individuals or small companies, who create stuff. I.e. Vimeo is a cool platform of cool people creating stuff.
On Instagram I have not had the experience you had. I follow a lot of nice-to-look-at accounts and it makes me just a little bit happier. Also some are comedians and some are corporate media accounts for travel-related companies, things to maybe daydream about later.
Do you have kids? I find that young single people get jealous and status conscious when looking at the rich and famous. As someone with a daughter and a paunch it makes me happy to get a glimpse of the beautiful people because I don’t actually want their life.
I am a proud and highly entertained uncle with nieces and nephews ages 2 to 32.
> I find that young single people get jealous
But really the travel part is something that anyone could enjoy. People get interested in travel at all ages. The bug hit me only a couple of years ago but I know people way younger who want to travel.
Vanity is a helluva drug.