Dear World,

I'm writing this letter today to let you all know that my life is nothing like what my social media accounts reflect. Your life probably isn't either, so maybe you can relate to this. The problem is that when I look on Instagram, I don't see that. I see picture after picture of people that I assume are having more fun than me, getting better grades than me, living more exciting lives than me, and people who are happier than me.

This week I pulled an all-nighter writing a paper and making a presentation about a play that I wasn't able to even start reading until one o'clock in the morning. The following day I continued to run through the motions, pretending to be the girl that the internet sees. People don't see the stressed out, depressed, and anxious girl that hides beneath my social media facade.

I've struggled with depression, but my Instagram and Facebook are filled with photos of me smiling and laughing. You'd never know the real me if you were only to judge me by my Instagram. I don't post about the rough times. You wouldn't know that I get homesick from looking at the endless display of pictures of me enjoying the warm weather on the beach. You wouldn't know that I really don't have my life put together and tied up in nice, neat, perfect bow 24/7. You don't know that because I choose not to show it to you.

The thing is, while I'm entirely aware that my social media is a false representation of my life, I'm still trapped in the mindset of believing that it's an accurate representation of everyone else's. I get upset when I see that people appear to be handling their lives in a much better way than I am and wonder why I can't keep up. I was thinking about that earlier this week when I realized that people could very well be thinking the same thing about me. There are a lot of times when I do have my life together, but there are a lot of times when I don't.

I don't think that we should stop social media altogether. I think that it's okay to post the highlights of your life. I do, however, think that we need to take the time to know people as people again, instead of just as pictures. There's a girl behind my Instagram, and there's someone behind your's as well. We exist in real life and there's so much more that you don't see in the pixels on your screen. There's a story behind every smiling face you see on your newsfeed that you won't know if you never bother to learn about it. People are so much more than pictures.