Zen and the Art of Instagram: From Insta-bae to Chill in Japan's Virtual Spaces and Shifting Times.

In 2017, the word Insta-bae, a blend of Instagram-shining, became the buzzword of the year and the biggest fad in Japan. Within a few months, about 20 millions joined and started posting well-edited photos with bizarre strong colors making the artificial image look better than the original subject. At least this was the goal - turning reality into a positive bright perfection, an ideal. The Japanese word Insta-bae - インスタ映え - uses the character “haeru” - 映える - which means to glow in bright colors. It implies something, or someone, that becomes unusually beautiful when a light from an outside source shines on it, or is being reflected in it. The interaction between the outside and the inside and the direction of the light are an important factor reminding us of the myth of Narcissus and his reflection in the river. However, there is a major difference between the Japanese meaning and Narcissus myth. The English word to shine implies a light that comes from inside the thing, or the person, and shines around. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection. This difference represents a very important core value that distinguishes Japanese culture from many of the western cultures: the view from the outside in rather than from the inside out. This constitutes one of the main differences between collective societies, where the outside group is the most important, and high individualism, where the Self is the center. The beautiful photos on Insta-bae were a quiet undeclared competition of aesthetics not for the glorification of the Self but for the pleasure of the community since community building and group communication are important functions of every social network in Japan. Thus, the themes were very important and had to be as objective as possible and to reflect the “right” image. The right image had to have a strong appeal to many users, present non-controversial themes like images of nature, traditional food, and beautiful areas of Japan recommended for tourism, and finally create a sense of cultural and social unity. But to understand well the meaning of Insta-bae we have to start from the origin. Why did Instagram shift and resurfaced in new concepts as Insta-bae? What made so successful? How is the concept of Insta-bae connected to traditional Japanese values of representation, harmony, beauty (utsukushi), and the social need to belong? And above all, why is it already shifting again into new forms and new values appear in the images nowadays? The speedy modifications of the images have an impact on business work and development of products that call for a good understanding of the spirit of the age and the direction of the future. The answers to these questions are the key to figuring out the next step of Instagram and what it says about future changes in Japan.

Instagram, Insta-bae, Zen Buddhism and Quantum Physics = the Visual, the Material, the Self in the Process of Becoming. Three key values of Japanese society are embedded in the three photos presented above: the real, the designed idea of the real, and the internal truth which is always in constant change. One circle of the outside world, one circle of artificially constructed virtual space, and a constantly fluctuating Self - in Japanese concepts: soto-ma-uchi. The real world, the external, exists outside of self and body and is beyond reach and beyond control. It contains the powers of nature, the changing seasons, the delicate balance of life and death, the millions of gods who control the island. All the humans on the planet live within this circle independently, thus they are outside of the individual space of others and they form part of a neutral natural world. Like trees in a large wood, the connection is only through the invisible roots underground while the trunk, the leaves, and the branches form separated trees high above. Unfortunately, this has often been misunderstood and interpreted as “cold behavior” by people from outside of Japanese society, who misread and misinterpreted the meaning of the body language. The second circle, the inner space, encompasses the house, whether real or metaphorical, a group or a spiritual entity, it is the space that contains the internal world of those who dwell inside. It is the place to relax and be away from the eyes of the outside world, a tree independent of the wood with roots partly turned off.

The middle circle, the ma space, is the most important section equally connecting and separating the two segregated spaces in a unique way. It is a place outside of space, a gap in time and in social-material life. This is the space of the senses, of transformation, of quantum physics where particles and waves combine and choose what to become once they leave the stage of formation. In Japanese concepts - it is the space of Zen and of the imagination, the space where you feel the entire world and time and no world and no time. The Japanese character of ma is interesting and presents the idea of sitting under the gate in-between places: 間. However, in western cultures it is a space of nothingness, a simple point of transfer from one location to another, what the French anthropologist Marc Augé called a “non-place”, like train stations, airports, or open parks. The western places of non-belonging are still spaces that can be defined and confined visually. In Japan, it is an invisible space of new becoming and of an emotional search most commonly associated with art, artistic creation, and music. This is the place where many creative virtual spaces in Japan are floating in. This is the space where one can pick a subjective image of a certain reality, redesign it artistically according to an one’s own imagination, and resent it back to the world in brighter shining colors that enhance hope and energy. This was the spirit of Insta-bae only 2 years ago - some new hope, strong colors, individual creativity and community well balanced in harmony. But the mood changed very fast.

Photogenic, Instagenic, and the impact of Intertextual Economy. As mentioned before, the source of light has an important meaning and it represent a core value of social relations and philosophical thinking in every culture. In English language and in individualistic societies, the thing or person give off light from inside - like diamonds or gold - and shine their light around. But in Japanese Zen the thing - whether human or object - has no inner essence of its own, there is no self, and therefore it is the light from the outside that shines on the object, or there should be an interaction between the light and the objects it shines upon. Since photogenic refers to people and to highly-emphasized individual unique traits, it has no place in Zen land, thus Insta-bae changed to Instagenic implying that the individual photos posted online are for content and collective ideas. People who take photos will always be careful to have an interesting background somewhere around them: their food, drink, an interesting table or decoration, something to pinpoint besides themselves. What, then, shines Instagenically well, and is there a meaning to specific parts of the photos more than others?

Zen Buddhism is about life in the “here and now”, in the moment alone since there is nothing and no one else. Everything else exists only in our own private imagination. Therefore, the appearance of things has high importance simply for being what it is. Or actually, simply for BEING. In very simple words, what you see is what you really get. Beauty implies goodness, dirty implies a bad character, negligence of appearance implies lack of care and disrespect for the surrounding. People in Japan are careful about how they look and how they appear in public since it reflects their internal self to the outside. In contrast to the famous western value of “don’t judge a book by its cover”, Japanese traditional values judge very much by the cover. There is no other reality and there is no other self. We only imagine we have multiple selves if we live in cultures where the self is the center of existence. But in Japanese sense, Narcissus saw in the river an imaginary illusion, himself as he would have loved to be but not what he really could have looked like. None of us sees our own image as we really are, we all see a fantasy that depends on the light and the mood we are in at a certain moment. We have no real image of our own face. Only others can see us and shine our own light over us. Therefore, there is meaning and intention behind the decision of what needs to be emphasized on Insta-bae photos and what should be left in the shadows or completely erased. The image is the meaning, it has to be carefully designed so that others will reflect us in the right light. The key features for a good Instagenic photo - they must include strong exaggerated colors (most dominant are the pink kawaii, red, and brilliant gold); they should follow trends that are already set by ads and fashion magazines (be creative but not too original); and they should mirror the acceptable themes reflecting social harmony such as Japanese traditional food, colorful sweets, and mostly travel destinations. As Japan is famous for its many rules and meticulous guidelines, one can find many online guides and online booklets teaching people how to post the "right" themes and colors in the right angles and shapes in order to produce good Instagenic photos. Interestingly, these guidelines change and adapt to the meet the contemporary tastes of the entire market and fashions with every changing season. The economy around the industry is developing intertextuality that leads to a close connection between different industries and economies. For example, there is a new creative Fujifilm camera for Insta-check where one can see the final photo in an instant before directly posting an Insta-bae photo. Fujifilm is one of the companies that adopted fast and in smart ways to the new digital age by constantly developing accompanying products and even a line of advanced cosmetic products, far from what the business started from but close to the needs of people taking photos. 

Rising Chill and Declining Bae: Will the Rising Fad “Chill” Change Business and Consumer Needs Again?  The biggest challenge of Japanese culture is to be able to see what happens in real time. Many companies and advertisement agencies started investing in Instagram and in developing influencers who will quickly post products and visit vacation resorts. But the moment you finally get what a new fad is in Japan, that’s the moment you realize it has already changed and you have the finished product rather than the trending in. Which bring us back to lesson number one in Zen Buddhism - how to be in the “here and now” all the time. Apparently, Zen is not as simple as it seems. People still love to post Instagenic photos, but it is old news and the financial and business influence has dramatically decreased. The rising word “chill” that has just started spreading reflects a new mood that is growing among the youth and the twenty-something crowds: “calm down and be careful”. Chill is the same as its English meaning and it is written in katakana accustomed for English words. Young people are no longer optimistic about the future of Japan and its economy, and they know and understand much more than youth of the previous generation. In 2019, the Insta-bae shine is not so shining anymore and the mood is much less brilliant. Young students listen to news, have political opinions and worry about the future of their country and their potential jobs. Japan’s Instagram strongly reflects the changing spirit of the age and the realistic fears expressed through darker unedited colors and authentic photography of reality as it is. But it also reflects the rising search for a new socio-political identity, an identity that is embedded in Japan’s original history and tradition, in Zen and the concept of “being in the now” as it is with no cover and beautification. It is also a new door for rising individuality that replaces fake imaginary photos of wishful aspirational perfection. As always, when one door closes, there is always another one that opens.