As a matter of fact, Social media now has a huge role to play in each of our lives. I agree that being socially active is important to keep up with our connections and to make new connections. But at what cost? Definitely not at the cost of giving up on the real experiences.
I have recently been on a trip with a few of my girlfriends. I was pretty excited to see them after about 3 years and we only had a few days together to catch up for all the lost time.
Guess what we were left with after our 3 day vacation? Perfectly clicked pictures, innumerous Instagram stories and posts.
I had high expectations and I was really disappointed with the way our trip ended up. Major part of our time went in posing for pictures and uploading those pictures. We didn’t get to have a single real heart to heart conversation during our stay together. Faking smiles and posing in the right angels for pictures seemed to be our only motive of the trip. It started from the time we landed and continued till each of us took our flights back. It was utterly tiring to pose for so many pictures. I was so bored that I desperately waited for the three days to end so that I could get back to being a real person.
I couldn’t find my friends in them anymore. They were lost in the social media masquerade. Are they only seemed to be my Instagram friends now? I wondered. They have spent most of the vacation time going through their feed, planning their posts, framing their stories, editing, checking and rechecking their feed likes.
Is it worth ruining the real moments?
Of course, I have an Instagram account too (not that active though). It might seem to be old-school but, I don’t really care for the unreal likes on some social media platform. These moments of real-life are too much more important to me. I might not be meeting them again for the next few years. I don’t have any great memories of the trip, we only have pictures. And seeing each picture now only reminds me of how it ruined our real moment. It was definitely not worth it.
I know most of us spend a lot of time wondering how everybody else’s life is perfect but not ours. Their reel life unknowingly affects our real life. We see people having a successful career, great weddings, happy kids, travel diaries and it makes us wonder why all these are not happening to us.
The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel
-Steve Furtick
Downfalls are always off-camera
Let me assure you, everybody has downfalls and difficulties which are off-camera and we don’t see them. Perhaps they are looking at your pictures and wondering how everything is so perfect in your life.
All I’m trying to say is we have to decide till what extent the social media should play a role in our lives and understand what is the cost we pay for it and how much is it worth.
Wholistic You 