I ‘m sure many of you spend most of your “online time” on Social Media right? You most likely have either a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter page and maybe Snapchat! If you have one or more of these accounts, you might notice the constant updates by many friends, celebrities and popular “influencer’s” (especially travel bloggers, fashion and beauty influencer’s who always come across as being perfect) posted on a regular notice. Ever notice how some people on Social Media seem to have perfect lives?
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Well… they don’t! For starters, no one’s life is perfect as we are all humans and have flaws. Secondly, consider social media as a virtual space where anyone can be anyone or anything they want to be. It is a delusional “make believe” world where people are constantly trying to showcase a lifestyle that they most likely wished they had or that they want people to think they have, that does not reflect their reality. Or for those who do live quite impressive lifestyles, they are not always as happy as they appear to be in their posted pictures.
For example, have you ever noticed how fashion and/or beauty bloggers always come across as being perfect and happy? They are always perfectly well coordinated and always have the perfect pictures at the perfect locations? They are usually dating the hottest guy or girl and have beautiful living spaces. Oh and they also sometimes get paid to look great so for many who follow them, they begin to think that this is how their live’s are on a daily basis.
But if you only knew what their real lives were like or what they go through for that perfect picture on a daily basis. It’s hard to be picture perfect! Many of these social influencer’s work hard and spend a lot of money to create a lifestyle that appears to be “perfect”.
Trust me I know because I started off as a style and entertainment blogger on www.thehotjem.com where I would post pictures of myself wearing different outfits and then as the Editor-in-Chief, I later decided to focus on expanding www.thehotjem.com into a full blown fashion, lifestyle, entertainment and media portal so I temporarily stopped doing style posts to focus more on growing this site from a small blog to more of a fully functional site. But I will say that for every “perfect” picture I posted, there were many “not so perfect” pictures taken in crazy conditions like the photo shoot I did when there was a lot of snow and it was very cold but I didn’t have a jacket to keep me warm as I wanted people to look at the picture and think “wow she looks perfect in the winter in a dress”.
But someone looking at my pictures might think “she looks perfect and might have a perfect life” when in reality I don’t. I am also faced with challenges and go through the regular hustle and bustle like everyone else and I do many takes before I get that perfect picture and people should not equate a”perfect looking”social media presence to being happy and perfect as it can actually mean the opposite… a cry for attention or help.
Even US-based motivational speaker and blogger Luvvie Ajayi agree’s that social media should not make you feel back as posted today on her Awesomely Luvvie’s Facebook page the following:
“Do not let social media make you feel bad about your life, because you might see your peers doing things you wish you were doing. Your time will come, just as theirs has come, if you are willing to put in the work. Your job is to live life in the best way you know how. What these platforms should do is to inspire you to do just that. Hopefully, what you take away from people’s lives is that yours needs to be as true as possible.
Do not let comparison steal your joy. and when you feel it creeping up, log off, sit with yourself and figure out if what you’re feeling is based off the fact that YOU know you can be doing better, not just the need to compete with someone else’s win.
Happy Monday.”
So next time you see that girl or guy who are posting pictures on Instagram driving all the hottest cars and wearing only designer clothes, ask yourself if they are doing it to live a lifestyle that does not exist or if this is their daily lifestyle, are they really happy? You will find that many of these people need and seek acceptance and only feel good when people shower them with praises and likes. The grass is NOT always greener in the other side.
