Don’t act like you don’t do it. Simply for the sake of procrastination, you get onto Instagram and go to the explore tab. Soon, you come across someone whose efforts to make their lives seem significantly more interesting than the rest of ours have succeeded, and you go to their page. All of a sudden, 23 minutes have passed, and you’re 89 photos deep with nothing but a sense of disappointment and slight self-loathing to show for it.
Thoughts such as, “I’m so fat, there’s no way I’m even touching a bikini this summer. How does she possibly have that body?”
or
“I need to go to music festivals. Coachella, Lolla, Governor’s Ball, Ultra - I’m missing out on everything.”
or
“They have the most perfect relationship. Two beautiful people so deeply in love and happy with each other and I can’t even get a good morning text.”
or
“Backpacking trips through the mountains, breakfast on the beach, nights out at the club - this girl does it all while I am stuck here doing the same thing every day,” come to mind.
But the fact remains that Instagram isn’t real. Those who represent such an overbearing presence on Instagram represent such a tiny fraction of a percent of the population.
Who in the real-world truly has perfectly tanned sticks for arms and legs, complete with disproportionally large boobs and butt to go along?
Who in the real-world has the time or the thousands upon thousands of dollars needed to religiously attend every big music festival?
Moreover, are these people even actually happier than the rest of us? Australian Instagram star turned real person Essena O’Neill claims that in fact she was no better off during her time as the icon of perfection on the site. She's now marketing in her bio “Social media is NOT real life.”
Perfect lighting, beautiful backgrounds and flawless makeup do not pay the bills. They do not display the hard work of education in trying to move up in the world, and they do not reveal the depths of a soul or the beliefs of our moral foundation. So why do we as a generation let Instagram hold such power on who we measure ourselves to be? Why do we feel the drive to go to such lengths to prove our lives should be the envy of all of our followers?
Maybe it’s just a phase. Maybe since none of us truly have hold of who we are yet, our insecurities create an urgent need for perfection. All one can hope is that, as we grow to brand our own originality in the type of person we will be throughout our adult lives, we will outgrow our skewed views on what our lives need to look like to be fulfilling.
