If you open up Instagram, it is highly likely your feed will be flooded with glamorous pictures of women looking like they are having the time of their lives.
The candid shots normally features the woman at the focus of the photo relaxing on a beach, enjoying some tasty food, standing against a colourful wall or showing off a new outfit.
Picture perfect, the photos do rack up the likes on Instagram so it is no wonder they are so popular.
While the woman spends time ensuring her hair, outfit and make-up is on fleek for the photo to maximise likes, normally their boyfriend or husband is waiting patiently to photograph the moment which they know will take a few snaps to perfect.
These exhausted men are affectionally now known as ‘Instagram husbands’, a term first coined by television presenter Jeff Houghton back in 2016.
The Urban Dictionary defines ‘Instagram husband’ as:
The husband of a blogger or online influencer who takes photographs for his spouse and is tolerant of the constant interruptions that come along with the blogging business.
Thanks to the popularity of Instagram though, it isn’t just bloggers who have ‘Instagram husbands’ now as they can be seen anywhere, especially at popular holiday destinations.
This is something 27-year-old Lewis Gudger, from North Yorkshire, discovered when he was on Maya Beach in Thailand about 18 months ago.
While travelling with his girlfriend of five years Cesca, Lewis visited the famous beach which recently just became closed to tourists for the first time.
Knowing the beach would be ‘packed full of tourists’, Lewis and Cesca still had to visit it and of course get some photos for both the memories and social media.
While taking a photo of Cesca in the sea, Lewis noticed several other couples doing exactly the same thing which he found fascinating.
Realising he had to capture this moment, Lewis turned the camera onto the others on the beach and the result is amazing:
Speaking exclusively to UNILAD, Lewis explained how he found the photo he took funny.
He said:
We watched the people fight for space to lie down on the sand and also trying their hardest to get a photo with no one else in it.
We just happened to see these three couples from where we were stood and had to take photo because we found it so funny.
It was almost unbelievable. I snapped the photo before all the masses arrived with countless selfie sticks, it wouldn’t have been possible to get this pic when it was as busy as it got!
Discussing ‘Instagram husbands’ with his workmate, Lewis remembered his photo and realised it perfectly demonstrated how true the term is.
Sharing it to Reddit, naturally it went viral receiving over 129,000 upvotes at time of writing (August 3).
Lewis told UNILAD he couldn’t believe the reception his photo received:
I’m not the type of person to post a lot and don’t usually get much online attention so when I uploaded it and after two hours it had 15,000 upvotes and made it to the top of the global front page, I couldn’t believe it!
It’s odd how a photo I posted showing the ridiculousness of Instagram likes forming part of society these days turned into me checking my phone every 30 seconds and refreshing to see how many more upvotes I had was a very confusing situation. It was almost ironic.
It really made me realise how easy it can be to get obsessed with likes, view and comments.
With Instagram recently announcing they are introducing features which will help people cut back on the amount of time they spend on the app, it is clear being addicted to social media is a wide problem.
The reaction to his Reddit post made Lewis think more about ‘Instagram husbands’ and why it is such a popular trend.
He concluded:
Everyone wants the perfect shot for a profile picture or Instagram post to get as many likes as possible, it’s hard not to use attention as a form a validation and approval when it comes to social media, it’s the only quantifiable way to measure creative things like art and photography.
And to get the perfect shot, you need someone to help and lay in the sand and spend twenty minutes getting just the right angle where your hair looks nice – hence the Instagram husband title.
Unfortunately for Cesca, Lewis admits he is better at taking photos of ‘landscapes and scenery than people’ meaning he ‘was never good enough to be an Instagram husband’.
Thankfully they prefer more natural shots anyways meaning ‘a wonky self timer’ of the couple appeared on Cesca’s Instagram rather than the photo Lewis took of her in the sea!
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