ocial media presence was never something I worried about during my O and A Levels. Of course, I had made Facebook and Instagram accounts, along with a scattering of other social media applications, but I never put as much thought into it as some of my peers did. Half a dozen Instagram posts during my five years of high-school education prove this.

As I became more involved in extra-curricular activities and started being selected for more and more internships, this slowly changed. All of a sudden, I had a whole lot of friends and acquaintances not just in Lahore but throughout Pakistan; some even outside its borders. Remaining in contact with them, or ensuring they didn’t forget about my existence in the long months we wouldn’t meet, seemed easy by increasing my presence on social media; not just posting but adding stories and sending the numerous random memes I would come across on my feed.

People I hardly knew and had only met once or twice would comment on my posts and reply to my stories and this would lead to an online friendship: this was still a new phenomenon for me. While it was understandable, my small amount of social media use meant I wouldn’t grasp some of the trends particularly quickly. There were many that seemed almost outlandish to me. One such trend was the use of boomerang stories on Instagram.

For someone who has been using social media for extended periods of time this may not seem such a big deal. But for me, my first ever experience of boomerang was watching a story one of my friends had posted where he zoomed in to an expensive delicacy he had procured from some fancy restaurant in Gulberg. It may almost seem foolish but such was my awe at not only seeing the video zoom in but also zoom out, and even loop itself three times, that I messaged my friend asking what software he had used to edit the videos. What followed was a 20-minute-long call where he berated me no less than five times for how poor my knowledge of social media was.

What’s worse is when the people in the story barely move a muscle during the boomerang. It would certainly have been much better to post a picture rather than a boomerang where the only motion is someone blinking three times in rapid succession.

At least I did manage to gain some valuable insight to the numerous social media trends around.

Over the course of the next couple of years my casual scrolling gradually turned into late-night binging on social media. While I did manage to get the hang of things fairly quickly, one thing still irked me on a regular basis: the overuse of boomerang in Insta stories.

Don’t get me wrong, boomerangs certainly serve their purpose. When used accurately they can certainly lead to some stunning looking stories. The problem with boomerangs, though, is twofold: first, the overuse by everyone has made the novelty wear off quickly, second, some people fail to understand what makes a good boomerang. Simply holding the shutter button and watching whatever you captured repeat three times over is hardly the most exciting content.

What’s worse is when the people in the story barely move a muscle during the boomerang. It would certainly have been much better to post a picture rather than a boomerang where the only motion is someone blinking three times in rapid succession.

Stories where a picture would have been better are rather saturated with boomerangs that don’t add any value.

Early boomerang stories were definitely a breath of fresh air in the saturated world of social media, adding something new and unique to Instagram and Facebook. However, over time they have turned into an annoying trend, one I would be more than happy to live without.

The writer is pursuing a   bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at NUST. He can be reached at   araheemabaid@gmail.com