Highlight Reels Vs. Reality

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Social media is both a blessing and a curse…but more so, the second one.

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter…all social media outlets we use day in and day out, sharing pictures, updating our statuses and flooding timelines with our every day, mundane thoughts (because what we had for breakfast is pertinent information that our followers NEED to know).

But if you’re like me, social media becomes an obsessive place where you can get lost, time and time again. With thousands of profiles at the touch of your fingertips, it is rather easy to see into the lives of others while in the comfort of your own home. I get to see the new shoes someone just bought, the island someone just visited, and the couple that are just SO in love…and I start to feel bad about my life.

It seems like everyone else is out there buying new and expensive things, traveling the world, getting their asses to the gym, moving on with their lives, falling in love with new people…and I’m just…stuck. Everyone seems to have their shit together besides me. Everyone’s days seem brighter and full of life, and I’m still binge watching Netflix in my underwear.

But these are the highlight reels…these are their social media personas. People always seem a lot happier, better-off on social media…but you and I both know that your social media presence isn’t always as great at your reality (because let’s face it, you sorted through 40 different selfies before you narrowed it down to ‘the one’).

These are the “highlights” of someone’s life. This is what they want people to see. This is the happy couple smiling in a picture (even though they had an argument an hour before). This is the picture of my healthy apple (that I took yesterday, because the picture of ice cream in my lap isn’t so #fitfam). This is the post about how happy I am without my ex (but I just needed to clarify it once more in case you didn’t know).

We use social media to plaster the highlights of our lives because why share the ugly parts if we don’t have to? We don’t get to see the unattractive pictures. We don’t get to hear about the fighting that goes on. We don’t know that they are charging all of their luxuries on a credit card and they’re in debt. WE DON’T KNOW. Instead, we post the things that make our lives look fucking fantastic…even when it’s far from it.

The point is this—do not fall victim to the highlight reel. Do not fixate on the lives of others, feeling like everyone else has what you want. Don’t compare your life to someone else’s, do not wish you had a relationship like “them”, and stop thinking that everyone else is doing better off than you. No one’s life is perfect.

So, the moment you stop falling in love with everyone’s highlight reels is the moment you get to live the life you want, the life you’ve envisioned, and the life that you deserve…because if you keep fixating on everyone else’s lives, you’ll forget to enjoy your own.