Internet Culture

#Nightshift is the realest hashtag on Instagram

It’s a whole different vibe after dark.

Photo of Kelsey Lawrence

Kelsey Lawrence

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The hours between 2am and dawn are when the thin rubber gloves of pleasant, socially obligated interaction come off. They are the hours when you’re a more stripped-down, honest, stranger version of yourself. Ideally, we would not be held accountable for the well-being of anyone or anything during these hours, yet people get sick, oil is still coming out of the ground, and highways are at their emptiest—waiting to be worked on.

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These witching hours are either a quiet purgatory or blacked-out wilderness, rarely something in between. Those who have worked a night shift understand how surreal it is to be doing what the rest of the world does during human, light-filled hours. I’ve been routinely searching #Nightshift on Instagram since the New York Times ran a piece on it last January. Try it when you can’t sleep and need to feel less alone.

#Nightshift, above all, expresses solidarity. You need comfort during this time, and that comes in the form of a shot of your Starbucks order, a selfie that you know will garner at least a few likes in the morning, and memes that aren’t all that funny but also articulate how you feel better than you could really really hope to at that particular moment.

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The crowning achievement of this particular #Nightshift deep dive was discovering the world’s most insanely hot, how-is-this-even-real doctor.

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This woman! WHAT IN THE HELL IS HAPPENING! Dr. Merita Waldorf, according to her bio, is both a Doctor of Medicine and Fancy Lifestyle Enthusiast. She’s what would result if Julie Cooper, Lisa Ann, and Sophia Loren morphed together and went to med school. I know for a fact this woman intimidates any man she comes within 20 miles of.

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Each one of these photos unmistakably says “You up? I’m up.” And that is why #Nightshift is the realest hashtag on Instagram. 

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Photo via André Hofmeister/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 
The Daily Dot