The other day I stumbled upon a blog post that was discussing the way in which social media depicts our lives and all the ‘wonderful things’ in it. There were some really fantastic points made that supported the view that social media is nothing but a platform for those to debut all the high’s in life and highlight the absolute hell out of them adding as many bells and whistles as possible.
Being a blogger and having opinions on a vast range of topics, I thought I would take to my keyboard to take this claim a little further in ironing out the creases to this common tactic to try to uncover the concept behind this thriving image desire.
Social media (or as I like to call it, the highlight real) is just that. It’s a podium for us to share in our successes to receive as much praise from our doting followers and friends as we can – I’m using the term ‘friends’ very loosely here. The concept of a double tap becomes increasingly valuable as your online-cred sky rockets keeping in mind that the more likes, the more popular you think you become.
Now in amongst millions of people trying to gain personality status online, there are in fact people out there who are very much so considered ‘Insta-Famous’. Aside from the typical celebrity, the likes of YouTubers, bloggers, models, artists, chefs, business owners, writers (just to name a few) are all using the social world to create big business platforms for themselves. These people are bringing something else to the world and it’s usually more than just an OTT filtered selfie, set of bulging breasts or a standard #humpday ass shot (FYI: we don’t need to see your ass in order to know what day it is, just saying). Social media is a fantastic outlet to expand your brand and in some instances, your name. You have the ability to reach millions and network with people all over the world, promote your product and hit trending tags all without opening your wallet or leaving your home! It’s something so accessible to everyone that it comes as no surprise that our feeds are not only filled with joyous moments of our personal lives, but also full of DIY creations, recipes, outfits ready to purchase and beauty tips and tricks!
The beauty of these social media applications is that we can post about whatever our hearts desire. The downside to this is that we can post about whatever our hearts desire and that there is no way for these apps to filter through and call bullshit on our tweaked photos and carefully selected snaps in order to demonstrate a life our followers should only be envious of. Let’s be real for a minute – we’ve all scrolled through our feeds on a day where we are feeling less than ordinary and have seen that one photo posted by just another someone highlighting the extraordinary consistency of their lives which makes you feel like your life is so underwhelming. It makes you feel like shit right? But what we all get distracted from and forget is that these people carefully select what gets shared online and are in control of how their lives, relationships or jobs are perceived. They control what you see and ultimately how you perceive the life they live.
Before long, those double taps become more valuable than money and those online followers become more important than real life friends. People establish a trust with online identities. A shoutout for a shoutout soon symbolises an alliance between 2 strangers who seem only useful to one another by sharing the same desire to fluff the feathers of a misrepresented Instagram account in order to self advertise to a new following of potential online ‘fans’. Standby and no more than 24 hours later the amped up profiles of these once ‘big supporters’ that we have all been encouraged to follow are now deleted and are nothing but strangers once again. Oh the irony.
I have a moral to the story for you all and that’s for you to just do you. Don’t worry about the background noise that is people’s desperate desire to convince you otherwise about your life. Two things I took out of the blog post I read were:
“Don’t let social media fool you. There are people who have hardly any likes on their Instagram pictures, but still have lots of friends, and others with hundreds of likes despite being the loneliest people of all.” – Miranda Athenasiou
“There are people who don’t brag, who are halfway to a deposit on their first house and others who are pictured in VIP every Saturday night who don’t have a penny to their names.” – Miranda Athenasiou
So next time you reflect on your IG feed and think to yourself how deprived your life is, remember the extreme effort that some people go to in order to depict the type of life they do. Think of the time it takes to construct such a masterpiece and to uphold a certain persona channelling from online life to real life, never stepping out of character. If you have a fight with your loved one, lose your job, struggle with finances, are feeling upset about falling out with a friend or just plain out having a shitty day, don’t feel you have to go and overcompensate that by putting on a great display of show to your online social base. It’s ok to take some time out from your posting schedule. It’s ok to be real and post something that reflects what you’re going through, even if it means people calling you an attention seeker or someone who’s looking for sympathy, better to be called out for being you than being called out as someone holding up a different facade.
If you find yourself portraying a life you feel others will envy than you’re doing it wrong as you will never find true happiness consumed by a persona that’s just not you.
Until next time..
TBP x.x
THE BLONDE PERFECTIONIST 