“You are thriving.” “You look like you are having the time of your life.” Throughout the summer I found these compliments flying at me from friends I have not spoken with and old coworkers. Whenever I got these compliments, I always found it hard to say something back. I would obviously say thank you, but would find myself at a loss of words after. Receiving compliments like these were weird, too. I never knew what to feel. While a part of me felt satisfied, I was confused as well. This made me wonder. How can we all approach a comment like this?
Something that rings inside my head after receiving this compliment is the fact that it is all fake. All of it. While it may look like someone is having the absolute time of their life on Instagram or TikTok, there is a time where we have to all realize that it is a facade.
This past summer, I bought a disposable camera and decided to capture my summer on film for the last few weeks. When I bought my camera it was at the perfect time. I would be getting ready for my trip to Florida with some family members and the week after would be traveling to the city of my dreams, New York City, with my best friend.
Everything I captured on the film camera was the highlight of my summer. Being given only 27 shots in a roll, I had to be extremely careful in what I wanted to capture- which was all of the good stuff. After a roll was finished, I would upload collages on TikTok and post my favorite pictures on Instagram.
While romanticizing your life is fun and what everyone should do, we all need to realize that that is what social media is- a romanticization of your own life. When you post on Instagram or TikTok, you probably are not going to post a picture that captures your “bad angle” or the day after a break-up. You will post the best pictures you can find-pictures that have the perfect angle of your face or the best times in your relationship.
After receiving these comments I felt confused because I was under the impression that everyone knew it was fake. Until I realized that I do this myself, as well. I will look at someone’s Instagram feed and see what they are doing-maybe they just got hired into their dream job or are spending a semester abroad. While their life may look amazing and perfect from the outside, it is hard to realize that they might be going through a hard time.
This past summer, I also was working at my first internship. After I accepted my position, I posted where I would be working on both Instagram and Facebook. While it was a huge accomplishment receiving an internship, on the other hand, it was incredibly hard to receive one. I applied to over 20 internship sites, got five callbacks for interviews, and received only one offer. Yes, you only need one internship, but that is beside the point. I posted my acceptance, but behind that was a sea of rejections.
There is a saying that there is more than what meets the eye, and I will say the same for an Instagram picture or anything that we post online. A collage of pictures and videos of our highlight reels does not capture our life. Yes, I had an amazing summer and I am grateful for that, but not all of it was perfect! This makes me wonder now, is there even a reason to post on social media at all? Instead of catching up with people on our socials, maybe we should just make lunch plans instead. In that way, we could know what is actually going on- the good and bad.
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