Look at the millennial who has made it a habit to live an adventurous lifestyle, sipping on the prettiest cocktails with her girl gang. This is a “typical millennial,” who will post photos on Instagram with captions like “TGIF” or “Girls Night Out!” Once the exciting night is over, comes the “I’m done drinking” Snapchats and the hungover photos. The girl gang selfie from last night isn’t the same image the next morning. Each looks more disheveled than ever, vowing to lay in their bed all day long. There’s no way in hell that any millennial will snap a selfie in their destructive state to post on Instagram.
We’ve all been there and are all guilty of creating a glamorous social media facade. The truth is, no one is going to post a selfie when they aren’t looking their best. We have filters and photo-editing apps to zap away our zit and hide our bloating after shoving down numerous slices of pizza. If it weren’t for these magical tools making us look better at our worst, there’s absolutely no way the typical millennial would bother to post a photo.
There’s an altered reality wrapped around social media that defines who we are, and we can’t take everything we see on social media to heart. I was inspired to write this after I wrote a final paper for my upper-level Art History seminar. I studied my Instagram account as an album in relation to the traditional Islamic art form of the Muraqqa and its folio compilations. I’m constantly posting photos of my Manhattan lifestyle and more squad pics than solo selfies. Based on my Instagram profile, some might think that I have my sh*t together and I’m living my best life.
Personally, I don’t think that I’m very interesting and I spend a lot of my time taking baths and watching Netflix. However, I think back to my posts from spring break and my recent slew of posts from going out every night. Before posting, if my spring break photos showed any bit of cellulite I immediately deleted it from my phone. I was simply throwing away the best parts of me because I was more concerned about those who would be scrolling.
Maybe I’m too hard on myself, but aren’t we all? Sometimes you’re not aware of it, but we’re all guilty. It’s 2017 and the issue is that we are more concerned with how we appear to look in the numerous eyes of the internet. Although it is very entertaining, it is ruining our lives. What I think is true, is that most people on Instagram aren’t as happy as they appear in their photos. A photo doesn’t capture the millions of moments that we don’t see. We don’t see the increased stress levels, the tears, the anxiety attack, the sickness, and so many other emotions that we all face. Simply scrolling through Instagram doesn’t allow us to connect to these strong human emotions. These emotions aren’t the best and we tend to hide things that make us uncomfortable.
We should never look at Instagram as a genuine resource. We can’t look at other feeds and try to achieve a similar image. People don’t always appear to be themselves.
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