Edited by: Sahana Inuganti
Scrolling through my Instagram feed, I see how my cousin went bungee jumping, my best friend’s boyfriend is in the Maldives, a few people from high school were partying last night and the person I followed only because of our mutuals is having pancakes for breakfast. I get up, look at myself in the mirror — hair is a mess, neck hurts and I’m in PJs that can at this point be displayed in a museum as antique clothing. I was indifferent towards all of this until I came across people wearing the prettiest, trendiest clothes, with perfect makeup, perfect hair, and a seemingly perfect life.
The constant comparison that social media gives room for has often taken a toll on my mental health. On some introspection, I came up with a few pointers that I keep in mind every time I find social media getting to me.
You are looking at the best moments of someone’s life
Instagram feed is basically where everyone, including you and I, dumps the best moments of their life. The angry outbursts, mental breakdowns, lazy days of doing nothing never make it to social media. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we know someone from what they post. We most likely have no idea about what goes down before and after the 20s Instagram story they just posted. For most, it isn’t hard to smile for 2 seconds for a selfie and it isn’t hard to look happy on your social media. Next time you proceed to delete a photo because the background doesn’t look good, the lighting is bad or your smile looks ‘weird’, remember that we all do it. Only the picture with the perfect background, lighting and smile makes it to our feed. Only the days with delicious meals, beautiful sunsets, fun adventures are posted on social media. Your feed may be full of them, but they still are just a part of your life, as they are for everyone else.
Social media is hard work and here’s why
Very often there’s an entire team of people that’s working to make someone’s life look interesting, worth watching or following. Social media is a game of numbers. For many, it is a source of income so they naturally take it a lot more seriously than the rest of us. What may look extremely romantic on social media, could’ve been and probably was very technically produced. A large amount of thought goes behind making that moment look perfect. From outfits, location, makeup, pose- every little detail of that moment is often planned or staged. This isn’t to say whether it’s right or wrong. It is only to say that it happens and it is unfair to compare your entire life to a perfectly planned moment in someone else’s.
You are consuming content produced by multiple people
It is easy to forget that the pictures on our feed are of multiple people and not just one. It isn’t one person that is bungee jumping, chilling in the Maldives and partying, but a bunch