The Instagram Standard Is Affecting How We Live Our Lives

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it actually fall? We’ve all heard that theory, and many of our responses are: “Of course it did.”

If you’re alone in your room, and something is funny, did you actually laugh? What if it was quiet, and it was a laugh that barely escaped your lips? It’s still a laugh, no matter how soft.

The girl that cries when no one hears her is no weaker or stronger than the girl who cries in a crowded room. Vulnerability is not strength nor weakness--it’s vulnerability. A cry is still a cry even if no one is there to comfort it.

A girl getss 500 likes on a photo on Instagram. “Wow, you’re gorgeous!” followers comment, followed by “#goals." She is surrounded by heart eyes and fire emojis, but when she wants to go to the movies or a restaurant on Saturday night, there is no one for her to go with. Her social media page is full, but her inbox is empty.

In today’s day and age, we live our lives online. We can’t go out on a Friday night without the Internet knowing about it or throwing it onto our Instagram pages. We all do it. We pose perfectly, we use filters and edits, and we wait for times when we know people will be online to see it.

And yet, we edit our own photos and wonder why we can’t look like the Kardashians. How come they can make their contour look like that and I can’t? The Internet did it. Because technology most likely did Kylie Jenner’s contour. If you’re guilty of editing your photos, what makes you think that celebrities don’t do it too?

We live in a time where "Instagram Famous" is a category of its own, a career of its own. When we live our lives “doing it for the 'gram," we forget to recognize the moments that are done in private. Or done for ourselves. Or shared with a loved one. Or that none of our followers can see.

Instagram is a fallacy. The most unhappy people may get the most likes. If we forget the standard and remember the people who aren’t on Instagram or the people who don’t get likes, we remember the girl who laughs the softest or the tree that falls and no one hears it.

Forget the standard. Do it for yourself, have the ‘gram just there to see it.