-Life Behind The Lens-
Most of us these days are very up to date with social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat. We watch our favourite YouTube vloggers/bloggers, keep up to date with their everyday lives via their personal social media accounts, know the names of their spouses, children and even their pets. Some of the people are not even YouTubers, just random girls we follow on Instagram because they follow us, because they post interesting or pretty pictures and sometimes just because she's really pretty. We're all guilty of it, following random people and keeping up to date with their lives while we live our own.
To the outside world their lives look perfect, they're beautiful, they have a picture perfect wedding, have the perfect husband to whom they give cute nicknames, they have the perfect house, they have a car, they're the perfect parents to their perfect children, in their perfect lives they set up their own business...basically they have the perfect life. But truth be told we don't see what goes on behind closed doors. I can guaruntee you their lives are not as perfect as it looks on social media.
There have been times I have been just scrolling through Instagram or have been watching YouTube videos and thought to myself I wish my life was like that, I wish I was as settled as them and my life was as stable as theirs. I think to myself how have they already bought a house of their own, have a car, a child and have what seems like a perfect life? What are they doing right that I'm doing wrong? Then I have to remind myself that what I see online is what they choose to show me. Nobody wants people to see the struggles of their life or see the times they've messed up, made mistakes, when things have gone wrong, people only post the good things going on in their lives.
Take my instagram account for example, it's just a snippet of my day to day life, BUT, its only the good things in my life that I post, the interesting things, the happy things. Behind the scenes in my life I have a lot of struggles that only those closest to me know about, and even then there is no one person (except my husband) who knows about every detail of my life, all of stresses, my struggles, my worries, the things that are going wrong. Everybody else hears or sees what I choose to tell them. I have arguments with my husband (as do all couples), I have family issues (just like everybody else), I'm still struggling to sort my life out (as are most people my age), but I don't post any of that on my instagram or snapchat or whatever else.
I have had plenty of people who follow my instagram account and tell me they wish they had such a good husband like mine, or that I'm so lucky because I have such a good job, or even people in my 'real' life who only hear and see the good things in my life tell me I'm so lucky to have such good in-laws, or so lucky that both me and my husband work 'we must be really well off'. All of this is what they see from the outside, behind all of that it's not so black and white.
To be honest it's not a bad thing that we post all the good things in our lives, we can look back through all of our posts and pictures and appreciate all the good things that have happened to us through all the struggle only we know about, it's a good way of reminding yourself of all the things you have to be thankful for when everything feels like it's going wrong. And it's a good thing we don't post negative things about our lives, it's not good to post your dirty laundry to the world, so everybody knows your business, can mock you, gossip about you and take advantage of you when you're most vulnerable. The reason I'm writing this post is so you're aware that what you see online isn't the whole truth.
No body has the perfect life no matter how wealthy or famous they are. Everybody struggles every single day of their lives, but everybody's struggle is different, we are all afflicted with trials and tribulations of various degrees at various points of our lives, just because someone looks happy on the outside doesn't mean they don't have any problems and that everything is perfect for them. Just because someone goes on lots of holidays and has lots of nice things, doesn't mean their life is better than yours.
You might have an amazing husband who adores you and loves you to pieces but can't give you all the nice things that 'so and so's' husband can (or just looks like they can). That person's husband might be in a mountain of debt, but just because they still go on exotic holidays every 3 months and buy each other expensive things it looks like they have an amazing life. Believe it or not, people actually go out of their way to buy things just to post it on social media, they do things just so it looks good on Instagram...don't be fooled.
So at the end of the day, look through people's pictures, be happy for them, but always keep in the back of your minds that you only see what they choose to show you, you don't actually know the person behind the lens, we're all in the same boat travelling through life, some people just put a flattering filter on theirs.
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| Image from: http://www.bigmarketing.co.uk/social-media-mining/ |
To the outside world their lives look perfect, they're beautiful, they have a picture perfect wedding, have the perfect husband to whom they give cute nicknames, they have the perfect house, they have a car, they're the perfect parents to their perfect children, in their perfect lives they set up their own business...basically they have the perfect life. But truth be told we don't see what goes on behind closed doors. I can guaruntee you their lives are not as perfect as it looks on social media.
There have been times I have been just scrolling through Instagram or have been watching YouTube videos and thought to myself I wish my life was like that, I wish I was as settled as them and my life was as stable as theirs. I think to myself how have they already bought a house of their own, have a car, a child and have what seems like a perfect life? What are they doing right that I'm doing wrong? Then I have to remind myself that what I see online is what they choose to show me. Nobody wants people to see the struggles of their life or see the times they've messed up, made mistakes, when things have gone wrong, people only post the good things going on in their lives.
Take my instagram account for example, it's just a snippet of my day to day life, BUT, its only the good things in my life that I post, the interesting things, the happy things. Behind the scenes in my life I have a lot of struggles that only those closest to me know about, and even then there is no one person (except my husband) who knows about every detail of my life, all of stresses, my struggles, my worries, the things that are going wrong. Everybody else hears or sees what I choose to tell them. I have arguments with my husband (as do all couples), I have family issues (just like everybody else), I'm still struggling to sort my life out (as are most people my age), but I don't post any of that on my instagram or snapchat or whatever else.
I have had plenty of people who follow my instagram account and tell me they wish they had such a good husband like mine, or that I'm so lucky because I have such a good job, or even people in my 'real' life who only hear and see the good things in my life tell me I'm so lucky to have such good in-laws, or so lucky that both me and my husband work 'we must be really well off'. All of this is what they see from the outside, behind all of that it's not so black and white.
To be honest it's not a bad thing that we post all the good things in our lives, we can look back through all of our posts and pictures and appreciate all the good things that have happened to us through all the struggle only we know about, it's a good way of reminding yourself of all the things you have to be thankful for when everything feels like it's going wrong. And it's a good thing we don't post negative things about our lives, it's not good to post your dirty laundry to the world, so everybody knows your business, can mock you, gossip about you and take advantage of you when you're most vulnerable. The reason I'm writing this post is so you're aware that what you see online isn't the whole truth.
No body has the perfect life no matter how wealthy or famous they are. Everybody struggles every single day of their lives, but everybody's struggle is different, we are all afflicted with trials and tribulations of various degrees at various points of our lives, just because someone looks happy on the outside doesn't mean they don't have any problems and that everything is perfect for them. Just because someone goes on lots of holidays and has lots of nice things, doesn't mean their life is better than yours.
You might have an amazing husband who adores you and loves you to pieces but can't give you all the nice things that 'so and so's' husband can (or just looks like they can). That person's husband might be in a mountain of debt, but just because they still go on exotic holidays every 3 months and buy each other expensive things it looks like they have an amazing life. Believe it or not, people actually go out of their way to buy things just to post it on social media, they do things just so it looks good on Instagram...don't be fooled.
So at the end of the day, look through people's pictures, be happy for them, but always keep in the back of your minds that you only see what they choose to show you, you don't actually know the person behind the lens, we're all in the same boat travelling through life, some people just put a flattering filter on theirs.