Instagram is by far my favourite form of social media. I love the fact it allows us to share small snippets of our lives through photography (a hobby i really enjoy) that collectively come together to form a montage of happy memories. I often find myself on those 'bad days' scrolling through my own Instagram, looking back at posts on holidays, fun days out, even really smiley selfies of me and my friends and they've often helped me snap out of the horrendous mood i've been in that day. The beauty of photos is they always stay the same, even if the people and places in them don't.
Despite the fact Instagram has become my saviour when procrastination hits (which i'll admit occurs far too regularly) and contrary to the fact i aimlessly scroll through my newsfeed far too many times a day, I do think this form of social media has the potential to MASSIVELY deceive. Instagram can create such false perceptions of people's lives and in result to this, can become extremely dangerous. A few months ago on a night out I bumped into a girl I went to school with, got chatting, and whilst catching up on our lives she made a comment which she probably thought nothing of - yet it has resonated with me for weeks. She told me how jealous my Instagram made her of my life, how happy and smiley I looked all of the time and how she wished she could do all these 'cool' things I regularly post about. After not having the best couple of weeks personally, I was so confused as to why this girl was jealous of my life....what was there to be jealous of? Don't get me wrong, i will forever be continuously grateful for the life i live. I know just how blessed i am. The reality is though, my life is far from perfect despite what my social media might suggest. None of our lives are. We're all human and have to deal with struggles and set backs that test our positivity and happiness all of the time. Social media can ruin our perception of actual reality because we're forced to believe that beautiful sunsets, artsy salads, gym selfies and 'candid' laughing photos is all there is to a person's life.
I know I am the absolute worst for it; for falling into the trap and believing that if i was more like these incredible bloggers I would be happier and my life would be more fulfilled. I follow so many health, fitness and lifestyle Instagram accounts that often leave me in awe, staring at a photo for longer than I even realise sometimes...thinking:
'What I'd do to be that thin...'
'How do they manage to work out and go to the gym as much as they do!?'
'I wish I could be as naturally beautiful as those girls...'
'How on earth do they get those abs!?'
'If I looked like them, I would be so happy...'
Yesterday I was sat in Neros, sipping on a gingerbread green tea (amazing by the way!!) and reading this months Cosmopolitan magazine...I came across an article that, what felt quite literal in that moment, broke my heart. This article was about a full time blogger who literally was killing herself to live up to this 'perfect' lifestyle she had created for herself online. Emilie Lovaine (@_lovaine_) is a health, fitness and travel blogger and has more than 14,000 followers on Instagram. In this article she bravely discusses her lack of body confidence and admits that for months she would obsessively over exercise, every single day, whilst under eating; most days completely starving herself. The article reveals how even though all the work out videos and photos she was posting showed a positive, energetic young girl, she was in fact the most miserable she had ever been; knee deep in addiction and depression. The pressure to be perfect became too much, eventually resulting in her being referred to an outpatient eating disorder clinic after being diagnosed with Anorexia.
The truth is, there are people who have thousands of 'likes' on their photos yet are the loneliest people in the world, girls who post pictures of themselves half naked yet the most insecure and self doubting individuals, those photos of the 'perfect', normal family yet unbeknownst to us the chaos it took for the children to sit still and stop screaming (in the end being bribed with sweets from seriously sleep deprived parents), couples that post selfies who have very dysfunctional, unhappy relationships.
We only ever show the best parts of our lives on social media, completely avoiding to post anything negative or anything that might suggest we are struggling.
So basically what I'm trying to say is please, stop comparing yourself to other people we see online. We are all normal people, trying to balance what can feel like a hundred and one things sometimes. Some days we do travel to amazing places and eat amazing food and why shouldn't we share those memories!! Some days we are lucky enough to see gorgeous sunsets and do have perfect lighting for that killer selfie (if you've got it, flaunt it girls!!). Other days, life is just about putting one foot in front of the other and trying our best to keep our head held high.
You are not, and never will be, less than a picture on Instagram x
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