What you see on Instagram is only part of someone's story. Only a couple of minutes out of someone's day or week in which they took the photo or video.
As human beings, we are drawn to things that are beautiful, perfect even. I think it is fair to say that we are all more likely to follow accounts on Instagram with a perfect feed- perfect locations, perfect styling, perfect lighting and filters that make the images blend together instantly. We would much prefer to see those sorts of images when we scroll through our feeds, rather than seeing pictures of deadlines, dirty dishes, messy bedrooms, arguments, sadness- the realities of parts of everyone's lives.
It is true that we are much less likely to display the harder, uglier sides of ourselves, the not-so-perfect angles, the double chins, the sweatpants, the dressing gowns worn 99.9% of the time. And that's not even mentioning the times when your actual life is less than perfect, perhaps broken relationships or hardships at work. It's much easier to share the beautiful parts of life, because they make you feel good when you look back at them. No one wants to look back at their feed a year from now and see the tough times, you want to forget about them and dwell on the good times.
And what's more, there is nothing wrong with creating beautiful content, expressing creativity through the art of photography. I know I love to do it! It feels good to get compliments about your images, it's great when you spend a while shooting for photos and you finally get one that you're happy with. I mean I think we've all experienced the taking 6o+ selfies to get that perfect one, am I right? 😉When it all comes together it's amazing and you feel proud of what you've curated.
The point I'm trying to make is that we need to realise that what we see online isn't the whole story. Everyone, or at least I can only assume that everyone has bad days, everyone makes mistakes, makes wrong choices, has arguments, fails at things, gets rejected and feels like quitting at some point. So, we shouldn't compare our ordinary life to someone's highlight reel. Don't take the pictures you see online so seriously, as accurate portrayals of someone's full life. Yes, someone might have this perfect life that they display on their Instagram, but we have no way of knowing if this is true, unless we spend 24/7 with that person.
Instead, I've decided to just appreciate the creativity in photos, to celebrate the success of the image, and compliment the curator rather than comparing my work with theirs and my life with theirs.
It's not all bad...
Amongst the semi-fake nature of images on users Instagram feeds, there is a movement at the moment towards a more realistic display of life. I've seen quite a few more realistic pictures where bloggers/influencers show the 'outtakes' of their shoots, and stories showing their realistic daily routines and what habitats we would usually find them in. I loveee the influencers that are 'real' in this way, they are much more likeable because of their relatable and authentic personalities. These really tend to be the most successful influencers in my eyes because they aren't afraid to show every side of themselves.
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