We've now entered the "facial hair" phase of the depression cycle where one thinks progress will be made by actually doing less than before. Oops, its a trap!
Why now? Why now is he posting about too many face pics affecting his mental health, "criticism" that only he sees, and letting his facial hair grow? Sean is finally starting to realize that his following isn't what he always hoped it would be. Look at the commenters on his posts. They are spam bots and gay dudes. What young straight male in his 20's wants that? I don't think Sean envisioned this even a year ago. Gosh, a year ago he was still quasi-dependent on his mother on LI and had that as an excuse for his pervasive, debilitating self-handicapping. He no longer has that as an excuse; the veil has been pierced.
At this point, his repetitive posts appear to be some sort of troll on his bot, gay, critical viewership and he knows his ship is slowly sinking. He's just biding time so that he doesn't become famous for quitting Instagram. It's a toss up for him whether he wants to fade away or quit for good and expose himself to reputational risk. If he quits IG, that's the end of his LA career. He doesn't want to quit. He's painted himself into a corner with the content of his posts, but each day is like a slot machine for him - there's a .01% chance of being noticed for a gig or brand deal, and if he does the same thing over again all day after day after day after day those odds increase to 100%!
The worrisome part about this is, he's won those small payouts enough times that it's actually become an addiction to him. This is no different from a gambling addiction. We're lucky Sean doesn't do drugs or drink. He's extremely susceptible to damaging his own prospects just for a couple of good hits of dopamine and seratonin every few weeks when he gets a free package in the mail, legitimately thinking it's the start of an upward trajectory. We're watching this in real time, and it is so, so sad to witness.
