Sarasota, Florida- Sitting on the outdoor patio of her great-aunt’s vacation home, Sarah Warner, 21, carefully set down her Mike’s Hard Lemonade at the side of her reclined chair to photograph the nearby beachside pool, taking care to nonchalantly position her sunburnt feet in the foreground of the image. Minutes later, after scrolling through each Instagram filter at least once, she eagerly uploaded her creation with a caption excerpted from a Zac Brown Band song followed by two sunshine emojis and a #neverleaving hashtag.
“I just love the beach!” exclaimed Warner to a relatively small crowd of poolside onlookers and reporters. “And I’m going to make sure everyone knows I love it, too.”
For the friends and family who actively follow Warner on social media, this will be her seventh Instagram post they will have seen in the past 20 hours. This is in addition to several tweets, a small album uploaded to Facebook, and a two-minute “My Story” on Snapchat -- which she continues to update when almost anything happens.
“All my friends are going to be so jealous!” added Warner just moments before sending her second selfie of the day to a group text comprised of hometown friends.
A handful of Warner’s followers spoke out to reporters, all of them emphasizing the displeasure her excessive posts have caused. Lauren Hillis, 21, an acquaintance of Warner’s since primary school, shared her testimony.
“Sarah is pretty much my best friend, but she needs to dial it back a notch,” said Hillis. “I’m tired of giving her ‘pity likes’ just because she uploads a cute picture and expects her friends to show support.”
Warner’s cousin, Terry Roberts, 24 -- who at the time was in the middle of a Grace Under Fire marathon in her Philadelphia apartment -- also had some harsh criticism regarding her younger cousin's actions.
Said Roberts: “She used to update her Instagram maybe once every other week. Now, she’s the only person showing up in my feed, and none of the pictures are even that great. At this point, I’m honestly sick of seeing her.”
Unfortunately for Warner, the luxury of vacationing for a week in a veritable paradise has prevented her from recognizing the annoyance that her social media presence has caused.
Warner, a self-proclaimed “people person”, has made it clear she sees nothing indignant regarding her social media publications, and that anyone who thinks so “should just unfollow me or get over the fact that I’m enjoying myself”.
According to sources, rumors of Warner studying abroad next spring have begun to circulate, which experts believe will inevitably lead to a public outrage.