How many times have you stalked a girl’s Instagram and been horribly disappointed in your own life? How many times have you looked at someone’s picture and pinpointed every single part of you that you were unhappy about? Do you have at least 50 selfies in your ‘deleted photos’ album on your phone? Over the years, my friends and I have had one significant struggle in this generation of social media that I feel has really set us apart from other millennials. We are just NOT photogenic.
I remember sitting with my best friend from college at a pool party, and we took about 50 pictures with the flash on at nighttime. It was at that moment that we realized we are just not photogenic people. When you go through your Instagram feed, it seems as though every picture has the perfect lighting, with the perfect contour, and even the perfect caption to go along with it. In this world of social media, where everyone’s life seems to be just about perfect from a photographic standpoint, I think it is important for girls to keep a sense of “realness” in their photos.
Why are we so obsessed with making sure our lives look fabulous through a camera? Is it really fair to judge ourselves based on what comes up on a 3x6” screen? It was around high school that my friends and I started to make gross faces into the camera, and looking back, I think this was a reaction to the picture-perfect girls around us. It wasn’t that I felt that I wasn’t attractive in a natural state, but getting in front of the camera it was almost comical how the pictures came out. So we decided to not give the camera a chance to make us look bad by accident and we started to look bad on purpose.
It’s bizarre to think about our world now and even to compare it to earlier times. There are always those fun, candid, black and white pictures that make you think you are born in the wrong generation. Pictures that you know someone snapped of someone else before the “selfie” was born. I don’t personally think it is a generational struggle per se, but I do not think it is easy to be an unphotogenic 23-year-old woman in this specific generation of social media.
This is one of the 50 pictures we took at the pool party
When you really think about it, how many times have you judged someone online for looking less than their best? How many memes do you see of girls or funny animals or anything ridiculous that compares profile pictures to tagged pictures? I say it is important to embrace this aspect of yourself. We can’t all be perfect. We can’t all look beautiful all of the time. There are plenty of times where I know I look good and for some reason it just does not come out on camera. And I think that is okay.
I think we, as a generation, need to start getting used to the idea that pictures in general do not tell an exact truth about someone. As much as I would like to wake up and know I will look good in every picture I take, I know that is not realistic. I am making a proclamation right now to leave the photoshop, picture editing apps and wanna-be models to Instagram. Besides, being an unphotogenic millennial makes your next 60+ likes selfie that much sweeter, ladies.
#TBT #GoodTimes
