Lifestyle | Instagram and The Pursuit of Perspection

Hello Lovelies! After reading Beth's post on why word vomit is ok, I've sat down, grabbed a cup of tea and decided to just let the words flow. Pure unedited word vomit coming your way, you have been warned. Instagram has been one of my most recent obsessions. It was a platform that for the majority of my blogging journey that I cared about, but never really made much effort in. The way I saw it was that there were lots of girls and guys out there who lived these 'perfect' lives, and took these perfect out of this world photos, but I was definitely not one of those people. Hello defeatist attitude... 

Then about six months ago I made the conscious effort to change, and start an Instagram theme and the whole way I saw Instagram completely shifted. My followers jumped to being forever at about 400 to the 1,000 it is now and I've never looked back. Posting with a loose theme (mine is white backgrounds), has actually spurred on my creativity which I didn't really expect. I thought it would be really restrictive but it's been a lot of fun. Probably because most of my content revolves around the adorable, coffee, and cute biscuits which is essentially 11 year old me's dream. Basically my version of goals.

However, it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes it's really frustrating when you just can't get that perfect photo. I've somehow managed to become more confident with my feed than ever, and also more insecure than ever. I'm well aware that my photos aren't amazing, and when you consider that someone is literally using the same camera as you and rocking their flatlays, when yours just fall flat it can be really disheartening. It always makes me wonder what my Instagram would look like if I just used it normally and not for blogging. Would I still aspire to the perfect coffee balanced on sheets photos, and would I still care what people think?

This is the thing that people don't really talk about as much. How normal everyday people use their Instagram who aren't trying to sell a product, a blog or a brand, and whether they also aspire to this perfection. I will put my hands up and say that I've stumbled across profiles of people that I know in real life, and felt that sort of heart ache. You know when you feel kind of inadequate and you don't even know why. Like we all know that Instagram is a highlight reel, and exactly what people want us to see, but sometimes I get lost in it all, more often than not when it's just not so obvious it's the highlights. Our brains have this way of jumping to conclusions, seeing images and imagining that this person lives a completely happy life, and being unable to imagine the sad moments.

My point is, as I reach my rather ramble filled conclusion, that sometimes as self aware that we can be that Instagram is for the most part constructed, it is easy to get lost in it all. Social Media itself isn't a bad thing at all. I love Social Media, and I really do love Instagram (not so much the company because algorithm) because it fuels my creativity. But sometimes as self aware as I am of how constructed social media can be, I forget sometimes. You always have to take Instagram with a pinch of salt, and remember that often it only tells half the story, or constructs a fantasy that isn't even real.

Thanks for reading lovelies! Have a great week! Do let me know what you think!

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