We’ve already asked how many outfits is too many outfits for a trip to Fire Island. Now the question is, how many pics are too many pics for a trip to Ptown?

Instagram further discouraged creativity with another update, now allowing users to add public comments to stories (tacky) and words over posts on their grid (too much). But the most noticeable difference may be the extended dumps, otherwise known as carousels. Users can now share 20–that’s right, 20!–pics in a single post.

The previous limit was 10, and that was already too much! There’s a Speedo pic saturation point… even for us!

As many alarmed gays on social media noted, less can be more.

“A trip to Provincetown does not require 20 photo carousel. let’s get that down to a tight 5, divas,” somebody accurately remarked.

With various white party photos still clogging our feeds five days after Labor Day, the grid is starting to blend together.

“White mesh. White shorts. Temu ad.” Rinse and repeat.

It can sometimes seem like gay weekend getaways are planned for performative purposes. Playing to the stereotype, one reveler on Fire Island went viral this summer for creating a detailed outfit rundown… right down to his no-show socks for tea dance.

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Indeed, the pre-planned outfits–neon green tank top, rugby penny, red speedo–indicate the reveler in question is trying to embody a certain, basic gay aesthetic. It’s easy to imagine him and his friends posing for a group pic in front of the famed rainbow wall, with an accompanying caption about how the “gworls are gworling” or how FIP “ain’t ready” for… another group of DC gays in their mid-30s. (It is!)

And therein lies the primary problem with 20-pic carousals: they discourage curation. With no reason to curate, everything begins to look the same.

“We as a society have abandoned the art of the edit,” added @oomfmagazine.

Amen, sister. Amen.

It was a landmark summer for gay culture, which exploded into the mainstream with a simple post. When Charli XCX declared “Kamala IS brat,” sludge-green quickly became ubiquitous.

Then it became overdone, right around the time Deutsche Bank used “brat green” in a job posting and septuagenarian senators started mutilating the concept.

Even Barack Obama tried to “brattify” himself without seeming to grasp what it means to live that life Von Dutch. The 44th president is many things… but a “three-sixty-five” party girl he is not.

On the positive side, gays are always on the cultural cutting edge, and this summer proved it. People already forget that we also unleashed Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter to the masses. You’re welcome!!

With Charli declaring brat summer over, we’re on to the next movement. Let’s just hope it’s better than 20-pic diaries from the latest long weekend.

We have faith!

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