If you stalk any of your study abroad friends and peers via Facebook, Instagram, Blog, or any other form of social media, you'll (most likely) find yourself wishing you were in their shoes. I feel that I have the credibility to make this claim, as I am guilty of it, and as a result, am currently sitting in my bedroom in my host family's apartment in the middle of the city in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I started my semester abroad, here in Argentina, in July and will not return back to the U.S. until December. How did I choose Argentina? That's a story for a different day. How have my expectations for study abroad changed while being here? That's a good question.

Before I jetted off to Argentina, I spent weeks, months even, looking at the pictures of students who had come here during previous semesters. I read their blogs, scrolled through their Instagram, and went back an uncomfortable amount through their Facebook to see events they had attended while being here. As a result of this, my expectations were HIGH. I was convinced that every day I would eat the best food I'd ever tasted, see the craziest parts of the world that I had never imagined, party like I had never been a freshman in college. But this notion quickly changed upon my arrival.

I have been here for a month and a half, and while I must admit defeat to eating great food and seeing parts of the world I had never seen before, it's not an everyday or an every other day thing. It is the type of thing that happens once every two weeks. Which sounds pretty great to experience, but in comparison to what I thought I saw on my peers' social media accounts, it seems like I haven't experienced anything at all.

Because of the filters and the easiness to click that you're going to an event, when in reality, it's too far, too expensive, and too late when you have class the next day, I feel that I've been let down. But I haven't been let down by study abroad. I've been let down by my peers. Their filters on their pictures ruined my first time seeing Iguazu Falls (one of the seven New Natural Wonders of the World, see cover photo above & compare the filtered to unfiltered) and Casa Rosada (Argentina's White House (But literally means pink house, it's Pink)). If I hadn't seen any of these pictures, I would have been mind-blown, but because of the social feign for likes on each picture, my experience has been slightly dulled.

I'm scared that this dullness will only increase for the next study abroaders, as more and more people continue to post pictures with more and more filters. I have to admit, I'm guilty of making a picture of a telephone booth (see below) look much more exciting than it actually was just so my friends and followers would think my study abroad life was something completely new, completely crazy everyday.

I'm not saying we shouldn't share our adventures, especially abroad adventures, but should we reconsider how we portray them? Shouldn't we brag in a way that doesn't take away from the future experiences of others?