I was asked a while ago if I would live the same life I do if I didn’t have social media and I was struck and honestly a little bit hurt by this question. Not in the way that you would probably think. I absolutely would have the same life and let me tell you why.
Recently there’s been a surge of people giving up social media or saying how we’re all addicted to it and while I commend those people for choosing to do that, I won’t be doing that anytime soon. From the very beginning of when I joined social media, Instagram in particular, it was like a whole new world opened up for me. It was my senior year of high school and I was just about to head off to college as a film and video major. There wasn’t a good place where people posted photographs they took before then and this was becoming the place. I was inspired and while I looked at it as a true social media platform to connect with friends, I used it as a place of inspiration moreso. I loved (and still do) to take pictures. The actual process of taking pictures, picking the location, the vibe, the outfits, the lighting, the angle, the everything and while Instagram slowly became a place with less pixelly pictures of friends in the dark and more high quality images that professional photographers took, I loved it. This was what I came on here for. I wanted to be inspired and see other people’s lives through the lens that they wanted to showcase. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with looking through life with rose-colored glasses on as long as you know that there’s always a darker side of things that isn’t always as great.
One of my biggest goals in life is to always be authentic, each and every day. And I hope that you feel that I am with you all. I think a lot of people that have trouble with social media say that we get too caught up in the number of likes or comments, and while that’s probably all well and true some of the time, I honestly think that I post more for myself than my followers. I do it to look back on a time in my life or people in my life and I want it to be a beautiful picture! I love grabbing my friends and having a photoshoot because its plain and simple fun. Isn’t that what this whole thing is about? Doing something that you love? People get so caught up in yelling at people that post things on social media that are for the most part unattainable for us “normal folk” and I just get so bummed for those users because they’re just doing something that they love! So what if they’re extra or over the top, let them enjoy it! Don’t punish them for it. It’s not necessary for you to love what everyone else is doing. Maybe they don’t line up with your own philosophy of life, that’s okay. There’s 7 billion people in the world you’re not gonna vibe with everyone. Get over it.
What I firmly believe is that there is a very thin line between a staged photograph and an “encouraged” photograph and I do my best to balance on that line, because that’s what I like! So although my answer to if I would live the same life is “Yes, without a doubt.” Other people’s answer might be no, and I’m okay with that, and you should be too. Because you’re not them, they are.
I downloaded this app a couple weeks ago that told me how much time I spent on my phone. I absolutely hated it. It kept telling me to get off my phone and it made me feel absolutely horrible. The internet is basically where I live, work, and breathe. I work on a computer all day, my email is on my phone and a lot of the time I’m on it for work rather than just scrolling through my endless feeds. But when I’m home at night just watching tv or relaxing from the day, I love to scroll through my phone! And there’s nothing wrong with that! I’m not neglecting any children of mine or
someone that I’m hanging out with and not paying attention to them, I’m literally by myself and should be able to do what I want to do! Get off my back! Don’t misinterpret this for me saying it’s alright to be staring down at your phone all day long because that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that if you love taking pictures or social media or posting things, then DO IT! Don’t stop doing something because some mommy blogger took it too far and was neglecting her kids and now needs a break and it made you think you do too. (no offense to mommy
bloggers, keep posting pics of your kids, they’re adorable and you rock) Maybe you do. But most likely you don’t. You pay attention to your friends when you’re hanging out, you’re not doing poorly at your job because you’re on Facebook all day long, you’re not staying up until 4am making sure you saw everyone’s post, you’re fine.
At the end of the day, you’ve got to do whatever makes you happy and for me that is social media and I shouldn’t be chastised for it.
So that’s what I have to say about that.
