Recently, social media sensation, Essena O'Neill "broke the internet" by deleting over 2,000 photos off her Instagram, changing her username to "Social Media is Not Real Life" and re-captioning many of her photos to reveal the superficial and posed nature behind her shots.
Essena's Instagram page looks flawless, and to her 800,000 followers, she serves as a role model, "fitspiration," and #bodygoals. But her honest re-captions are a reminder to us all that these photos are not accurate representations of reality, or achievable goals of perfection. Despite her flawless photos and thousands of "likes," Essena was depressed, insecure, lonely, and a slave to social media. A beautiful photo isn't worth much if you are without beautiful people to enjoy it with.
Essena's not an anomaly. As much as we hate to admit it, our generation is a byproduct of an addiction to social media. We are constantly using Instagram as a means of validation of self-worth by the amount of likes we get, how creative our captions can be, or the amount of followers we have. We are constantly trying to shape an ideal image of ourselves, to hold up to par with the other "perfect" accounts. But the reality is, none of us are perfect and Essena's account is merely contrived perfection.
When did our confidence come to be defined as a number? The amount of likes we have? Our following/follower ratio? We must look beyond social media and reflect on our own gifts and talents, rather than using the validation from Instagram likes or the amount of followers we have, to determine our self worth. It's easy to compare ourselves to others, and to think we need to look a certain way, or do a certain thing to live a happy life. But the reality is, we need to stop focusing so much on getting the perfect photo and looking a certain way and simply enjoy the present.
When we look back on memories, we don't remember the times we got the "perfect shot" or picked the "best filter" but we remember the crazy, sad, hilarious, and embarrassing moments. Think about how many valuable moments you might have missed because you were too busy checking your phone and scrolling through your feed instead of enjoying the company of others.
Essena reminds us to take a step back from social media and focus on ourselves. Be "selfish"- stop comparing yourself to others and wishing you could look or live a certain way. Embrace the life you have, and put the energy you would have used for Instagram into building true relationships and meaningful connections with those around you. At the end of the day, you won't look back on life and value the amount of likes you got on a post or how good a picture looked. These checkpoints for self validation are temporary, and we must look to our gifts and talents and relationships with those around us for sources of confidence, rather than approval on social media. Life is more than a photograph, and while a picture might "last a lifetime", it will leave us empty if there is no meaning behind the shot.
Source of photos: Instagram
