I am someone who is completely
and utterly addicted to social media and Instagram is my absolute favourite. I
love scrolling through my news-feed on a daily basis and viewing all the
different photos that are shared (particularly ones of pugs, I am obsessed and
it is a problem). With over 300 million users it is clear to see that Instagram
is fast becoming one of the most popular forms of social media and it is no
surprise as to why. As with Facebook and Twitter, Instagram provides us with a
platform to create an ideal version of ourselves and as a result present an
unrealistic portrait of who we really are. As I regularly witness on Instagram,
we often present ourselves as one who regularly consumes a sophisticated lunch
or two, enjoys a luxury holiday here and there and can master the perfect ‘selfie’
whilst wearing our Docie and Gabbana sunglasses and Chanel lipstick with
effortless ease. The truth is, in reality, we would much rather be eating
anything else but the posh lunch, we spent most of the annual ‘once a year’
holiday as red and raw as a lobster, and that perfect selfie? Well, after
thirty three takes, five different filter effects and an hour later, we were
finally ready to post it on Instagram.
I have found that going through
other peoples Instagram photos can also have a detrimental effect on your own
self esteem, particularly when you are bored out of your mind and having a down
day. You see pictures of people travelling the world and riding elephants in
Thailand and people going to lavish parties drinking the most expensive
champagne whilst wearing the most beautiful dresses. As you view these
different images you begin to ponder about your own life and sometimes a sense
of misery appears. Whilst they’re out living their lives you are still in your
pyjamas at 4pm watching copious amounts of repeats on Netflix and don’t plan on
moving for the whole weekend. From personal experience you begin to feel
useless and worthless, as if your life is boring. In reality however, you need
to remember that what other people are posting is not daily life. For all you
know the elephant in Thailand could have then taken a large poo on to the person’s
foot and the people at the lavish parties then spent the next few hours after
the photo was taken vomming into the nearest toilet or sink they could find.
Instagram does not represent a
persons every day life, it shows the good bits, but not the rest. Instagram is
not reality; every image is altered to make it look even better than it is, and
instead of taking in the view for ourselves, we let the camera lens do it for
us. I am guilty of this myself (see below), but next time, I am going to take a
step back and view the image with my eyes and store it into my memory, not my
Instagram account.
Instagram Reality
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