The Instagram clichés we're all guilty of in one mesmerising video
- Posted by
- Amy Swales
- Published

The cry rings out, “DON'T DRINK THAT!” and you pause, hand tantalisingly close to the warmth of the caffeinated beverage in front of you. You want to pick it up and savour it, but no – not yet, my friend. This coffee, this pretty swirled foam and aesthetically-pleasing wooden table, this moment, needs to be recorded and filtered and posted online. And that cry is you, the social media Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder whispering sweet nothings about free WiFi. The call is coming from inside the house.
Ah come on, we all do it – even if you're not a hardcore Instagrammer, most of us can't resist documenting a lunch or three with our smartphones, and now one artist has created a video showing that our oh-so-special (and fantastically arty) moments might not be all that unique after all.
Using the hashtags many Instagram images are filed under, musician Hiérophante has made a compilation called Clichés (which you can watch in full below), revealing our tendency to post near identical poses and pictures online.
Taking in peace signs, salad snaps, dreamcatcher tattoos, endless lattes, famed celebrity users and, of course, plenty of selfies, the clip has a hypnotic quality as it shutters through the unoriginal shots we can't seem to resist, including pushing over the Leaning Tower of Pisa, our legs in the bath and the results of our strange inability to spend 10 seconds in a lift without taking a photograph of ourselves.
Watch the video below and check out Hiérophante's Facebook page and Soundcloud.
Images: Hiérophante, Thickstock