It used to be something that affected celebrities, then it spread to bloggers and now it applies to many people who use social media: our lives have become content to be curated and shared online.
How often have you found yourself doing something just so that you can take a picture to share on the internet?
Maybe you’ve gone to an event or visited a place purely so you have something to write about on your blog. You wander round looking for things to photograph, for cute or funny signs, for delicious cakes to Instagram, an afternoon edited down to a 90 second film.
But your life shouldn’t just be a curated highlight reel for public consumption.
Life is messy and dull and emotional and glorious.
It’s sleepless nights and early morning commutes, endless trips to the supermarket or time spent washing dishes. It’s worrying about that time you said the wrong thing in a meeting or feeling paranoid because your friend didn’t text back. It’s dreaming about your next holiday or feeling inexplicably down in the dumps. It’s promising yourself that you’ll cut back as you tuck into your third takeaway that week, it’s wearing the dress that makes you feel great even though it’s faded from too much washing.
Life is more than the filter you used on your last outfit photo or the coffee shop you stopped at for lunch. It’s more than trips to New York or hiking in the Grand Canyon.
It’s more than what other people think of you.
We’ve become so used to sharing these things that we’re constantly selling something. Maybe it’s the perfect version of ourselves that we want to attain, but maybe, just maybe, it’s our soul.
Living in this way puts us all under so much pressure. We always have to look good or be doing interesting things. We’re always thinking about the next thing we want to achieve, the latest must-have item or where to find the perfect lighting.
It’s not enough to just be.
The happiest moments can be the ones that look unremarkable from the outside. They’re the times we stop and realise that for all its highs and lows, life is pretty amazing.
Those are the moments you won’t find in a content plan.
Gypsie says
Oh this is so so true! Life is so much more then social media but we all feel like we need to post about our own version of perfect! Life is pretty incredible without having to compare ourselves with others instagram accounts and post about everything we do. Great post
Amy Lord says
Thanks Gypsie, glad you liked it!