I think it's safe to say that our generation as a whole has conditioned ourselves to believe that it's necessary to present the best aspects of our lives to the world. We hide behind masks of seemingly perfect lives and trick ourselves into believing that anything less than ideal simply isn't good enough. I like to call this the "Instagram vs. Reality" façade.
I've noticed this way of thinking in my own life over the past two months of studying abroad. The pictures I post to Instagram and Facebook albums are filled with the best moments. They show the beauty of the places I'm traveling to and the extraordinary aspects of studying abroad for a semester. Those incredible experiences deserve to be documented and shared with the world, but I'd be lying if I said that Instagram accurately represents the reality of my everyday life. Instagram is essentially life through a filter. It hides the imperfections. In my current case, it hides the homesickness, the nearly missed flights, and the confusion of language barriers, to name a few. It's the easiest way to say "Hey! Look! I'm having the best time ever. Everything is perfect. Life is awesome!". But, sometimes, that just isn't always the case.
We're bombarded with the "ideal life" every single day. We see seemingly perfect people dressed in flattering clothes posed in front of expensive cameras and we think that's normal. We get it in our heads that "if my life doesn't look like that, I must be doing something wrong." No one wants to share the less than glamorous aspects of life with the world, but we have to remember that just because we don't share those moments, doesn't mean they don't exist. We have to remember that we all have those days—the days when nothing goes right, the days we'd never dream of sharing on Instagram. We're all imperfect people, but that's how we connect. We form relationships through our ability to realize that we don't have it all together, and we connect with other when we accept the fact that we're made perfect in weakness.
The masks we wear prevent us from truly finding the intimacy we crave from those around us. We tend to believe that until our lives are perfectly put together, we aren't worthy of love or acceptance. As imperfect people, we're in luck because no one actually wants to be friends with a perfect person. We relate through flaws and insecurities, and we love knowing that we aren't alone on this journey. Once we accept that we're imperfect and that life isn't always full of Instagram-worthy moments, that's when we can begin to understand that despite those flaws, we are still good for people and worthy of unconditional love.
And if you need a laugh, here are some classic study abroad posts. See the comparison between social media and reality!
Remember posting the views from the trains, but not about sleeping in cold, empty train stations?
Remember posting about exploring Rome, when in reality, it was the most embarrassing day of your life because you had to buy an extra scarf to cover up inside St. Paul's?
Remember trying to get that perfect jumping picture in King's Cross, but really, you just injured yourself?
Remember cropping out the excessive amounts of scaffolding?
Remember how long it took to get one good picture? Especially if a stranger was taking it?
