We all look very put together on social media.

Honestly, it can be hard to believe that anything could ever be wrong in any of our lives due to our online profiles. Instagram has become a large proponent in creating this “ideal image” of ourselves for others to see where we look perfect and as though every moment is a new adventure. Even the adventure of eating a meal or reading a book has been deemed appropriate of posting.

And of course, I love to see what people are up to as much as anyone else. Instagram is a great way to keep track of people who live far away or to tag your best friends in pictures and reflect on memories together. But it has also become a world where over-edited, over-dramatized, and over-compensating pictures are posted.

These pictures not only cause people to compare themselves and strive for a more “insta-worthy” lifestyle but it also changes the way that people live their lives. Especially in college and during our twenties and thirties. It is hard for me to go out to dinner or on a hike or to a concert without someone spending the entire night searching for the perfect pose or moment for Instagram.

I have even fallen into this trap without realizing it until later. It is appealing to find a beautiful picture of yourself or a moment in your life, post it for the world to see, and to find validation in this photo from comments and likes.

It is also is not real. It is a perfectly captured moment to mask all of the messy, broken moments. It is the best version of yourself for everyone else to see. And don’t get me wrong, it is always great to put the best version of yourself forward.

But eventually, people tend to begin searching for this validation more consistently while trying to take the perfect picture, edit or use the best filter, and shoot a photo of the most exciting activity to receive more and more “likes”.

The photos that are posted are no longer exciting moments of your life but rather a moment that you would like everyone else to believe was exciting. Only if enough people press the “like” button will you feel as though your life is as exciting as you want it to appear to be.

And when I say ‘you’, I am not trying to target anyone. ‘You’ is for anyone and everyone (including myself) who lives in the present society where social media and self-promotion are a status quo and means of social survival. But I have begun to find that when I look the absolute best online, I feel the worst in reality.

The moments that I am the fullest and living in reality, my phone is put away, I am completely engulfed in the moment, and I do not have the faintest idea what I look like physically. My heart is full because I am living in the present and I am enjoying my reality instead of wondering what everyone else will think about my life.

I am actually able to experience the “Instagramable” moments because I am not thinking about the perfect angle, filter, and pose to make others think the moment was perfect.