Instagram boyfriend quits. 'Her need for me to document her life drains my soul,' he says.

In an era where social media use is at an all-time high, and narcissism given a platform to roam free in a land of selfies and filters, the rise and rise of the ‘Instagram boyfriend‘ has become a pop culture phenomenon in and of itself.

There are Instagram feeds dedicated to them and memes made out of them, but what about the ones who don’t want to do it at all?

On 29-year-old man has posted on Reddit about the fact he is exhausted by his 30-year-old girlfriend of 15 months and her social media demands (in a dilemma unique to 2018, no doubt).

“Her father did a fantastic job of recording/photographing her life ever since she was born (there are multiple bookcases of photo albums at her parent’s place). Maybe too fantastic. Her need for me to catalogue her life is slowly draining my soul.

“I understand and enjoy taking pictures just as much as anyone else when it comes to dates, vacations, and even food. But when I have to take [over] 400 photos (yes, you read that right) on our date to the sand dunes or [over] 100 photos of our fine dining experience last night with another couple, is it really so hard to believe that I would get tired, start to not enjoy the experience, and eventually become visibly upset?” he wrote.

The Mamamia Out Loud team confess the embarrassing things we do on Instagram to impress our following. Post continues after audio.

He went on to say for a long time now, he has done his best to “humour” her as he knows she “enjoys getting photographed”.

“After our second-to-last fight about this, I told her I would try to improve my attitude (not fake smile, smile only with teeth, don’t become solemn and sulk). But when I have to enjoy salvation mountain through the lens of her GoPro as I follow her around filming/photographing, or when I have to stop every minute during a hike to photograph her, it becomes difficult.”

He writes that when he tries to discuss the issue, he is told to “suck it up” and these are “once in a lifetime experiences”.

“She scolds me for taking bad pictures all the time. I’ve read on how to improve and try implementing it, but then she scolds me for taking too long to take the pictures (again, all the time).”

Fellow commenters were quick to tell the 29-year-old this wasn’t a normal arrangement, with one saying “this isn’t life, this is an unpaid internship” and another writing he shouldn’t be her “personal paparazzi”.

“This is so annoying. I can’t even be friends with people like this, I have no idea how you deal with being in a relationship like this,” another added.

One more suggested mediation:

“She’s being unreasonable and you’re allowed to tell her ‘no’ if you aren’t in the mood to photograph her. Talk to her and make it clear that her social media addiction is really starting to negatively affect your relationship together and she has to back off. She should be respectful of your boundaries here and you two should come to a compromise about her social media use. If you guys can’t do that, then you guys may not be that compatible.”

What do you think? Is there a line between taking photos for memories and taking photos excessively?