We’ve all been there. We’re bored, scrolling Facebook or Instagram, and we’re hit with pretty picture after pretty picture. Fresh pizza in Italy, boat cruises with bottomless Mimosas, or perfectly clean and bright white kitchens.
You look over at your drooling dog sprawled across the juice stained couches and don’t care because you’ve given up on telling him to get off. Because we all know he just gets right back up there anyways. You get up to start dinner on your non-high tech stove and would love to open the windows and let in some natural light but oh wait, you don’t have windows in your kitchen.
You start to get the kids ready for bed and think about reading them books but decide it’s an iPad kind of night. Because your patience is thin and really, all you want to do is take a bubble bath and go to bed. You climb into the bathtub and are surrounded by rubber ducks and bath crayons instead of wine and romance novels. Candles? Forget it. You can’t have those in the house because duh, kids.
So there you are again, scrolling Instagram and looking at everyone else with their smiling kids blowing bubbles in Central Park or their long, tan, shaved legs as they strut across the street to hail a cab in Chicago.
And you start to feel bad about yourself.
Maybe you’re not working hard enough.
Maybe you’re working too much.
Maybe you’re too hard on your kids.
Maybe you’re too lenient.
Maybe you could afford to put on a few pounds.
Then again, maybe you could lose some.
Maybe your wardrobe needs an update.
Maybe you should downsize and create a capsule wardrobe.
You get the idea. We are so easily influenced by others and what they have that we focus on what we don’t have. We start to question our diets, our parenting styles, our appearances and pretty much everything else that can be compared to something we saw on the internet. We start to feel bad. And when you really stop to think about it, how crazy is that?! That a picture of someone else has made us feel bad about our lives. It’s not the person in the picture’s fault, but rather our own fault for letting comparison be the thief of joy.
Sure, there are a ton of cons when it comes to social media but there are so many amazing pros too:
It allows you to connect with others. Some of my closest friends are my “internet” friends.
We can stay in touch with people we don’t see everyday or who live across the country.
We can find inspiration for our home, style, menu, and more.
Need a good laugh? Those few Instagram accounts you follow always put you in a good mood.
We can educate ourselves with the facts but also have healthy discussions on differing opinions.
We’re able to document the little moments in life that we want to look back on.
People only share what they want to share. And people usually only post the best parts of their days, not the worst. Just because someone has a perfectly flawless Instagram feed or checks-in on Facebook at the most lavish destinations, doesn’t mean your backyard BBQ or Saturday errands outfit aren’t worthy of sharing or being appreciated. Apples to oranges people.. STOP COMPARING!
Take everything you see with a grain of salt. And don’t let social media make you feel bad about your life. If anything, it should make you proud because you can share your own adventures with the world and look back on all of it when you’re older. And realize how truly great your “simple” or “non-exciting” life really was.
