Instagram & The Reality – Behind The Photos

Instagram has got to be one of the toughest platforms in the world, just to get some traction on. One minute you feel like  you’re getting somewhere with it and next Instagram is like nope you can’t have too much success with it and it bats you back down. I’m pretty sure I lose hours of my fay just scrolling through Instagram, liking posts, trying to engage and comment on people’s posts, I basically try to cram in Instagram time everywhere I can.

One thing to remember though while scrolling through, Instagram only shows the best bits of people’s lives.
While scrolling through all of the aesthetically pleasing photos it’s the thing you forget isn’t it? That it just shows the best bits, the carefully curated photos, but doesn’t always show the whole picture. From the carefully selected hashtags, to the props in a photo, to way you edit the photo, everything has been thought out to the last detail when posting a picture.

Let’s be honest here, no one is going to want to see the person that has had about 3 hours sleep, had coffee for breakfast and basically wants to hide under a duvet and forget the day. That is me pretty much 99.99% of the time.

When it comes to my Instagram though I try to show the best of both worlds, just because there is a nice photo, I try to show more of myself through the caption. I kind of did that on Wednesday. If you didn’t see it I have basically been in a really difficult headspace over the last few weeks. I’m trying to see it as a case of the January blues, but it has genuinely been difficult and I’ve struggled so much.

I can sit there for ages and compare my life, especially my Instagram to others, maybe if I was this, maybe if I was that, maybe if I did this differently – I am that person that overthinks pretty much everything in every way and yes I’d probably forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my head.

It is so easy to get wrapped up in such a tiny little app, I’m definitely guilty of spending hours trying to get the right shot only to hate every one of them, lose the light and say screw it and hide under a duvet.

Don’t always believe that every photo you see that basically has the perfect everything is the entire story. It is literally a snapshot in time. It doesn’t show everything. Even the perfect flat lays, it doesn’t show what is going on behind the lens.

Behind the Instagram and behind all the photos there is a person, they might be using it as a creative outlet, a way for them to enjoy social media, or even as a way to just get away from what they’re feeling. Lately I’ve been using it as an escape – just a creative outlet and to support the people that I follow on there as much as possible.

This definitely turned into a bit of a rant but I feel like I got my thoughts across – kind of.

Just to finish, when it comes to Instagram though, it’s so important to remember that it is just an app. It isn’t the be all and end all. Your worth is never defined by an app, the quality of your photos or the caption that you use. Instagram is just a platform, and what you create is incredible!

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