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**This is NOT an excerpt out of a personal project**
What is and what isn't an ad?
While scrolling through Facebook and Instagram I am bombarded with an increasingly overwhelming amount of #hashtags and @handles of companies, pages, or “influencers” that don't really exist beyond the screens we're looking at.
“If we want authenticity we have to initiate it.” Travis Rice, 2011. Or “Bong Hits with Travis” as my college roommates and I called it. Unfortunately it seems that it is becoming more and more true every day.
Check that banger shot you just grammed. “What the heck!? It only has 26 likes!? But it’s prime browsing time on Sunday night, that’s at least a 16ft cliff, and you can see the base logo clear as day! It should have triple this many likes. Shit, don’t want to look like an amateur, better delete it real quick and regram it another time.” We have all done this. If you say you haven’t, you probably don't have an Instagram account. Everyone with 1500 followers on Instagram is a self branded “pro skier” or “travel grammar” or “lifestyle blogger”, my personal favorite. Why? Get a few gear hook ups? Sweet, the boys are gonna be super jealous you're brand ambassador for @sickhatsbrahheadwear and you got 3 new beanies. Fo Free! Just remember to use #beaniebrahs when you upload those shots from earlier. 
What happens when we get bored of it? Remember when Myspace died? That perfectly crafted flash base profile, the right song that took months to find, all those damned bulletins. They all just disappeared. One day everyone just stopped caring about what was happening on Myspace. Who the heck is Tila Tequila anyways?
What do I do when my followers delete the app? Do I move on too?
There's just something that feels so good about seeing that orange box pop up with a 53 next to a white heart. We are in an era when we worship Gary Vaynerchuk and increase his view count as his ego is evermore inflated. We’re just perpetuating the never ending cycle of self obsessed promotion. Social media is the mainstream media. We see ads and sponsored content all day long. Sometimes we realize it, sometimes we don't. So how does one stand out? Why do we even want to stand out in the first place?
I'm not saying everyone needs to go throw their phone in the toilet or delete all your apps.
Just ask your self "why am I using #gopro?" the next time you post up that self taken action shot.

Originally Published: 
​http://www.tetongravity.com/story/culture/unsponsored-content-sponsored-content