Instagram Vs. Reality – Honestly Elise

Last night I had the weirdest dream, that I was sharing content on Instagram that was unfiltered. There was no preset or Facetune or alignment to the other photos in my feed. You could say I woke up a bit inspired to create a post on how I can actually do this…

Scroll, oh I like this, wow that looks like a blast, dang wish I was on the beach, double tap. Is it just me here or do other people also look at Instagram and see this perfect world of people? I mean, I am definitely one to post my best selfie, the cutest couple photo and want to portray this image of I’ve got it together just like everyone else, except the reality is that I for sure don’t, none of us really do though. So that’s my point here the concept of Instagram vs. Reality and how I can start to showcase not just my good angled selfie but the reality of what is going on?

It is easy to fall into the cycle of showing off the perfection of our lives because we don’t want to show the ugly side of things, the messy side of real life. That we haven’t cleaned the dishes in two days or that pile of laundry is sitting in the corner needing to be put away, so we shove it off to the other corner so that our OOTD photo looks as if our life is all pristine.

This takes so much vulnerability first off, letting the people that follow you see the real rather than the constructed, but I think it is essential to showcase the real. It is easy to fall into the cycle because those are the photos that get the likes and comments and we all love a little bit of attention about how good this photo is, and if you say you don’t, that’s okay I won’t tell you’re lying, it will be our little secret!

In my defense, there was a stray cat about to attack!

How do we do this in the age of time where things need to be perfect or assume to be. To be 100 percent honest with you, I have no idea how to do this. I think it is baby steps. Starting with a little bit of realness blending with a bit of “content.”

Thinking of showing the ‘real’ makes me a little freaked out because 95% of the time, I am not put together! I am a constant mess figuratively and literally LOL. There are clothes everywhere, I don’t have makeup on, and I need to vacuum reaaaall bad, but that’s the thing it is okay not to have it all together. Life is not perfect; we all don’t look like we do on the internet and if we did, I’d think we were in some Stepford Wives cult, and we all need to RUN.

My first step in this is using stories to show the realness of what I am doing and keeping the feed more of the content. When it comes to the ‘realness,’ this will look different and be a bit scary because I legit hate being on camera, but I want to show y’all the realness to hopefully connect with at least one person that it is okay to be the perfect person you think you need to.

Now I am not the first to do this nor will I be the last or the best, but it is who I am, and I think that it is vital that as a new blogger that I start with being real and fall into the same thing that many other, amazing, bloggers do, because it wouldn’t be me!