Keeping up with the Insta-Joneses! One in six post ‘fake’ rooms to boost social media image

IT USED to be all about the model of car on the driveway, or even the quality of blooms in the garden. But in the digital age, keeping up with the Joneses has become all about the dazzling snaps of your home you share on social media.

And it seems a surprising number of people are prepared to cheat to impress those who follow their accounts.

A survey has found that one in six people have posted an image on Instagram that they pretended was their home when it belonged to someone else. The trend appears to be driven by the pressure to impress. More than a quarter of the 2,000 people polled admitted to being so envious of images of friends’ properties on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, that it made them miserable.

Nearly half of 25- to 35-year-olds confessed they would buy an item purely on the basis of how it would improve their home’s appearance on social media. Remarkably, some even admitted buying furniture and furnishings, posting pictures on Instagram and then returning the items to the store.

For first-time buyers, the size of the spare room or garden is giving way to how ‘Instagrammable’ the property is. Almost a fifth (18 per cent) of 18- to 24-year-olds would not buy a house unless they thought it would impress friends on social media, and 17 per cent said they would pay more for such a home.

The survey was conducted for the Ideal Home Show, whose spokesman Justin Levett said: ‘An obsession with social media is causing Brits to lie about what their properties really look like online in an effort to keep up with the Joneses.

‘With people admitting to paying more for Instagrammable properties... the influence of social platforms is undeniable. It’s making people feel the need to not just keep up with their friends but to keep up with people they don’t even know across the world.’ Interiors blogger Katie Woods, 40, last year took a break from posting images of her ‘perfect’ home to show how it really looked.

‘My carefully curated Instagram grid is mighty different to the everyday view,’ she wrote. ‘The made beds, the perfectly positioned cushions – all for the camera.’

Georgina Wong, 23, whose lifestyle Instagram account has 40,000 followers, said: ‘I would definitely consider whether a place is Instagrammable before buying it.’