Instagram, Facebook, Social Media in general, can create a pretty toxic lifestyle if you let it. From the beginning its always been about the likes, hearts, comments, etc. As someone who relies a lot on social media for my photography business its hard not to get sucked in! Its so easy to compare ourselves with picture perfect images from someone else's life.
Not that I'm incredibly old, but before Facebook and Instagram came to be, and posting pics online was the norm, I would make scrapbooks! Picking out tons of paper, stickers, washi tape, I loved it! But I never once made a scrapbook thinking, I can't wait to see how many people look at this and tell me how incredible it is! I made them for me! To document my life and the people I love.
So why does it have to be any different with social media? Why can't social media be like my digital scrapbook? Why do I allow the amount of likes, or lack thereof, determine if something is important? Most of the time I don't even realize I'm letting it effect me in a negative way. But sometimes I see a post of mine that didn't get much attention and I start over analyzing it....maybe what I said was stupid, I guess that picture isn't really that good.... How terrible and sad is that! The negativity starts all in my head literally turning myself into my own bully.
I decided the only way I could rise above this mentality, to try to change the way I view social media, is to post things for me. Does it make me happy? Am I being a positive influence? Is it meaningful to me? Does it make me laugh? By doing this I've realized I stopped looking for the numbers, I stopped questioning what others might think of me, and am finally creating a place to document whats important to me. So if any of you are struggling or have struggled with this, don't bully yourself! You do you! Post and share things for you and others will be drawn to your authenticity!
Cheers
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