05 Jul Adventure – Living a Life Unfiltered
Scrolling through my Facebook feed often has me wondering if all that glitters is really gold?
Let me explain.
Deep down we know social media is a totally controlled medium where anyone can choose what they display to the world. However, somedays I still feel like everyone else has got it all together, off travelling, on some grand adventure and I’m just sitting here working at my kitchen table next to my pile of dirty washing.
Not really inspiring, nor does it make for pretty pictures.
Instinctively I know that the ‘collective we’ rarely post the ‘not so good’ on social media.
But still….. Some days social media does bring us down.
So what to do?
Well for me, it’s about understanding that when I begin to compare myself to those motivational coaching blogs or the photos where people are hiking in incredible locations, looking like they have been on a photo shoot for Brand X, that I am comparing my on-going life to their still moment.
A still moment which is filtered.
A still moment that may have been attempted numerous times to get ‘just’ right.
A still moment that was planned posed and filtered.
And very possibly posted for the reason of product sales.
In all honesty, sometimes my photos may look like that too.
But when we compare our everyday life with someone else’s highlight reel, we are always going to come off second best.
It’s a challenge! As humans, we are designed to respond to things of beauty and awe. Studies have shown babies respond better to beautiful people, suggesting a preference for beauty is indeed an innate feature of being human.
This may explain why we only want to share the beautiful pictures and why we feel like none of our posts are good enough, translating sometimes to ‘we are not good enough’.
Interestingly though the posts that connect with us, move us or inspire us to dream, to change and to care are the ones that are raw and that are real. These permit us to be who we are, instead of ‘Instagram perfect’ all the time.
So it’s this that I have learnt to understand.
If you want to create beautiful, meaningful and deep relationships on social media, then be completely real. Let people see the mud on your shoes, the sweat on your face and the ‘don’t care’ hair!
If you want to create an image of aspiration then by all means filter, pose and show what’s possible.
Remember, whatever your choice is, never compare your life to anyone else’s on social media, we don’t know what happens behind closed doors or when there is no camera.
Your life is pretty epic because you live it – not just because you take pictures of it.
No Comments