‘THERE ARE THREE OF US IN OUR MARRIAGE – ME, MY HUSBAND AND HIS INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT’
Eimear O’hagan lives in the Scottish Borders with her husband Malcolm and their two sons.
Sitting at the dining table staring out of the window at my dinner – a juicy steak – on the barbecue, my stomach growled with hunger.
‘Hurry up,’ I muttered crossly as my husband Malcolm took out his phone and began his evening ritual of photographing whatever it is we’re about to eat.
As he snapped it from every conceivable angle, adjusting the special lamp he’d installed over the barbecue, then scrutinising the images, I knew not a morsel of that delicious meat would pass my lips until he was satisfied he’d got the perfect shot for the ’Gram.
Even when dinner was finally served, his conversation revolved around
‘I’M NOW AN INSTA WIDOW’
whether he should filter his images or not, and which one I thought would generate the most ‘likes’. Welcome to life with a budding ‘himfluencer’!
Until April this year, Malcolm, 38, a university manager, was a social media virgin – he’d roll his eyes, bemused, as I scrolled through Facebook. Yet all that changed when he set himself the challenge of cooking a hundred barbecues this summer.
He came up with the idea a few years ago, but hadn’t yet succeeded. So, as we all went into lockdown, he conjured up a plan to chart his attempt on social media, more specifically Instagram, as a way to make himself accountable – and thus, he hoped, reach his target.