Stop Scrolling, Start Living!
I’ve lived away from home for the past 9 years during which I was fortunate enough to travel to several countries. And like most people, I do post pictures on my Instagram. Last time I was home, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend.
We started talking about what we had been up to and he suddenly said, “man I envy your life, you’re travelling all the time”. I didn’t know how to react so I just gave a nervous smile and went on talking about something else.
On the way back home, I started thinking about what he said. This was the first time someone made such a remark and and the funny thing is, I always felt that I hadn’t travelled as much as I’d wanted to.
Why?
Because just like my friend used to see my Instagram posts, I would see my other friends’ Instagram posts who’d travelled more than I had and feel unhappy about it. The core to my unhappiness was focusing on something I didn’t have rather than appreciating what I did have.
We sit aimlessly scrolling through our social media feed looking at the exciting life of everyone around us, daydreaming “what if” and eventually going back to our “mediocre” and “not so exciting” lives. Day after day, we come back to our daily dose of the good life on someone else’s social media feed and fall further into the rabbit hole.
The problem with social media is the constant pressure of feeling validated online, “if there is no picture, it didn’t happen” — heard this one before? Everyone wants that perfect sunset picture that goes on our profile along with a nicely curated caption to express our profound feelings. We create this well-curated façade of a life on social media rather than focusing on things that actually do matter.
No one posts their failures, myself included. I post pictures of the several holidays I go for in a year, but not any about the constant slogging and long work hours that allows me to do that. We’ve got to understand that not everyone’s life is as perfect as it seems on social media and if it is, more power to them!
If you feel that something is missing, it is on you to go out and change it. Thinking alone never got anything done. Act on it!
We feel the grass on the other side is greener but here is the thing, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. There is no way to find out unless you actually go there. But here is one thing for sure, we have the ability to tend to our side of the grass, water it and make it green; it’s only a matter of picking up the shovel and getting our hands dirty.
