Your social feed is ‘fake news’.

Kristin Austin
Aug 9, 2017 · 2 min read

Does anyone else look at the posts on their social media feeds and feel their lives just don’t measure up? I do. Often.

By comparison to what I see on my social feeds, my life is;

D. U. double L — DULL .

But the social feed, whether it’s yours or mine, doesn’t tell the truth. It’s ‘fake news’. It’s a carefully curated set of images of only the most perfect moments and parts of someone’s life — often just to make the poster feel better about their life in their own heads. Never mind what it does to yours.

People have started to believe that what they see on social is ‘reality’. That everyone else is living a shiny, perfect life of glamour, social events, bubbles and froth (they’re just not). And if everyone else’s life is beautiful and shiny, the rest of us must be failing somehow.

Oh and it’s made worse by Facebook which really only prefers to show you the happier bits — too much negativity brings everyone down, so the algorithm would prefer to hide them.

But the cost is great. It’s draining our collective confidence.

It’s all just for show

What you need to know is that often times a lot of what is presented really is fake. Businesses that look bright, shiny and super successful on the outside and make no money or worse, are racking up significant debt for their owners. Bitter divorces, distraught kids and financial disaster hide behind the big smiles, flash holidays and sistahood imagery.

And my favourites — people who offer to teach you the secrets to earning big bucks when the only bucks they’re earning are yours. In fact, they might never even have done the things they’re teaching you. Or they’ve written a book on a topic they’ve only read about. But they’re an “expert”.

I’m getting pretty much over it.

In fact, I’m putting a stake in the ground to say it’s time for everyone to start keeping it real.

So I’m going to do my bit in terms of keeping it real and I encourage you to join me.

The challenge:

Post the real stuff in your life. Dare to bare your real self to the world. Not just the best bits.

When put like that, it seems scary. So I’ll go first.

If you follow me you’ll get to see what real life looks like. Sometimes funny, sometimes messy, often challenging — but always real.

I’d love it if you hit the heart so that other people can join us on the keeping it real journey.

With thanks, love and hugs. Would love you to connect with me on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Kristin Austin

Written by

Small business owner; passionate advocate for preventing poverty & abuse by building a business; educator; mentor; thriving survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

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