I'm not as happy as my IG suggests...
If I see one more influencer travelling, dieting, cooking, exercising I'm going to kill myself! OMG, I am so fed up of this bullshit idea of perfection. Before you ask, I do have Instagram, and I'm not an Instagram hater I'm just troubled about the idea of what we are turning ourselves into. More than ever we are high consumers, instant gratification seekers, and even more "valuable" human beings depending on the number of followers we have.
A few weekends back I agreed to have lunch with a friend, on my way to the restaurant I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, -as we do-, and I saw a picture of that same friend I was about to meet, as always she looked gorgeous and extremely happy.
After we exchanged greetings, I noticed something was off.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"OMG if you only knew, I'm not well" She replied.
As she was responding to my question, her Instagram photo came to mind. "Wait, what? Did you say you're not alright?"
"Yes!"
"But, a few minutes back I saw your picture on Instagram, and holy, you looked amazing and extremely happy", I laughed with some sort of sarcasm.
"I know, but that's just a picture, I have to do it for my followers." She replied without hesitation. -By the way, she is an Instagram influencer, and she gets paid to travel the world with her boyfriend-.
"It's bad. I don't know what to do now. I'm desperate. I hate him." She explained her boyfriend had turned into a complete ass, he constantly cheated and lied to her. She felt trapped and couldn't break up with him because they were both paid to travel together. That was their brand, pictures as a couple portraying happiness; so on the outside, they looked like the healthy, in love, zen couple who travels the world: Punjab, Casa Blanca, Angkor Wat, Bali, all the way to Phi Phi Islands. I could not disguise my concern.
"If you are feeling this way why did you post a photo of yourself looking in a way which is simply not true?" Initially, she looked at me with discontent, she was not happy with my question, I knew I would make her feel uncomfortable, but I wanted to understand why.
"Why wouldn't I, that's my business, that's how I make money" she replied.
"Well, for instance, because it's not true, what's the need of always portraying yourself as a happy person? You are selling a lie to yourself and others."
"Is not a lie; it's my job!" She insisted.
I understood I guess she sells an aspirational life, but that way of living was consuming part of her personal life. -By the time we had finished our lunch, she had already taken one picture of each dish we had ordered and each time interrupting our conversation.
I told her on the spot," you need a digital detox". She laughed at me or with me, then she turned serious and said: "I know, I'll try, but I need time to plan as I cannot afford to lose followers".
“Social media, unfortunately, just makes it a lot easier to be jealous. It sets up false expectations of reality, so it’s really easy to look at someone else’s life online and assume that they have everything going great for them and that their life is perfect.”
I believe we need to use social media within boundaries before it ends up ruling every minute of our lives. I don't think we need to constantly be telling people what an amazing life we have, how rich, fit or good looking we are when in reality we are not always at our best, and you know what, I think it's OKAY not to be.