Why Everyone on Instagram Always Looks Better than You in Everything

How many people here have Instagram? It is such a different world where everything is magical and beautiful. That is the place where people show how great their lives are. How much time do you usually spend to scroll Instagram’s feeds? And wondering why their lives look perfect while yours isn’t? Whether we realize it or not, we start to compare our lives with all those artificial perfections on Instagram.

Why is she much prettier than me? Why does he travel all the time? Where does his money come from? Why do these people socialize so well while I still have no idea how to introduce myself in public? Why does she always wear nice outfit and makeup and well done hairdo all the time while I cannot even have enough time to dry my hair?

We start to compare ourselves to people we see on Instagram, or any social media, which is dangerous. We will never be able to live as perfect as they do. Not because we are more unfortunate, but because we compare the worst side of us to the best side of them. People only wanna show what is good about them. They will not publish the photo where they look ugly, or where the place does not look aesthetic, or where they look so sad and depressed. And we compare what they publish to what we do not publish.

Moreover, what people post do not represent who they really are.

Back then, you just wake up in the morning, put your running shoes on, and jog. But today, you install an application to record how far you run. Do not forget to take a selfie, or a picture of your feet wearing those running shoes, upload it to Instagram with hashtag that represents how sporty you are. You can just go straight to bed after you upload the photo tho, you don’t even need to run or jog. No one will know that anyway. You are still a sporty healthy person to your followers on Instagram.

Back then, breakfast is just a breakfast. But today breakfast takes longer than it should because you have to arrange every object on the table, make sure that the lighting is good, and take a picture of what you eat. You will take a picture of your white clean table, or maybe covered by cute tablecloth, with a bowl of oatmeal and fruits on it. Oh, also two or three fashion magazines that you never read. Capture, post, and write inspirational quote about how people should start their days for caption. You can just put that breakfast away because it does not taste as good as your leftover pizza from last night, no one knows that and you are still that person who eats healthy every morning on Instagram.

Back then, you hang out with your friends to talk. But now all of you are too busy with your own phone. Of course you guys will take a picture together, it’s important to be uploaded so people will see you as a friendly person who loves to socialize and have a lot of friends. Although you do not really talk with those people in real, who cares? What your followers know is you are socializing!

So many more examples about how people fake their lives on their social media. Not all of them are like that, but not everyone lives as perfect as you thought. Eventhough they really do what they post on Instagram, for example they really jog, they really eat that healthy breakfast, and so on; there are many things that is not perfect in their lives. Another part of them that they do not want to show. But they just do not publish it. In the end, everyone has their own struggle. That is why Instagram is such a different world. The world where people look always happy and don’t have any problem.

For some people, numbers of followers and likes are also important. Even some people do not mind to buy fake followers and likes just to make other people think that they are famous or liked by many people. The progress of uploading the photo is also time consuming. First, we choose what kind of picture we want to take. We choose which photo that looks better. Then, we choose any kind of filter, editing, or even from other editing application to make our picture looks perfect. We tag everyone in that picture, add a location, and think about what we want to write for caption to impress people. After we post it after that ‘hard work’, we want our followers’ feedback. Do you know anyone who uploads something to social media and then check every second to see how many likes and new followers they get? And wonder why a specific person does not like their post? The numbers of like on social media seems like a validation for many people to make sure whether they are good enough or not. But, really, why do we need such a validation from people we barely know? Why we let them measure our worth? Why we try so hard to please our followers that we might never see in real life?

Of course it is not wrong tho. There are people who earn money from Instagram by posting a picture that will get thousands of likes. It is also a place to advertise many brands. If you have your own business, advertise on Instagram is a good idea. It also helps us to know what’s going on in this world. Thirty years ago, you had to wait for the newspaper every morning to know what was going on in this world. But today, you know what Taylor Swift, who lives million miles away, eats at the moment. Social media is helpful as well. But it becomes toxic when you lay your life onto it. Do not make it as a reason for us to feel worthless because we see other people there look more perfect than us in everything. In the end, all of us have our own problems. Do not make it as a validation to measure your self worth.

Not everyone you see on social media is as perfect as you thought. Everyone has their own problems; they just choose not to share it. Stop comparing what we do not want to show to what they do show on social media. Otherwise, try to enjoy your real life. Care about those people who are really there for you in real life. Those people who will bring you to the hospital when you are sick instead of those who send you ‘Get Well Soon’ message on your Instagram’s comment section after you post a picture of your medicines. Those people who will help you to clean the house, instead of those who compliment how good your house is after you post a picture of your room that you just tidy up. Care more about those people who will love you for what you publish and what you do not publish. They might not give thumbs on your post, but they give their all to make sure that you’re just fine.