It’s been a while since I’ve lasted posted, but Happy New Year! It’s 2017 already. The last few weeks have been spent with family and friends and loads of food and drink, but now is the time you’ll all be thinking of resolutions. Little goals you set yourself to make yourself better. Go to the gym more. Lose a bit of weight. Give up smoking, maybe. Most people focus on ways they can improve their appearance, but I’ve got a suggestion…how about trying to focus on your appearance less?
I know that probably sounds like an impossible task but hear me out. I’m not saying get rid of all the mirrors in your house and throw away all your make up. I mean stop worrying about how you look on social media. Instagram, mainly. As a photo sharing platform, it’s all about how things look. And with filters and editing tools in abundance, we all spend far more time that we’d like to admit altering our photos to make them “perfect.”
Instagram is one of the worst social networks for self esteem because we are faced with millions of perfectly filtered photos which we only compare ourselves too and try to compete with. I’ve come up with 5 steps which can help you fight this and become a happier, more confident and self-loving person in 2017.
Step 1: Admit It
Obviously the first step is to admit that Instagram makes you sad. Not all the time, but sometimes. Scrolling through your feed sometimes makes you feel a bit bad about yourself, like you’re failing somehow. You’re not as pretty as the people you follow. Or your life isn’t as exciting as theirs. Admitting this is the first step to breaking the Instagram cycle.
Step 2: Take a Fresh Look
So, you’ve realised that Instagram can actually be quite shit sometimes. Now what? Well, with this new perspective, take another look at your feed. Look at the posts which would knock your self-esteem a bit and ask yourself “how posed/edited/filtered is this?” Because I would say 99% of the time, each post has at least one edit made to it. Or Kylie Jenner has put on her bikini and got her assistant to take a photo of her even though it’s freezing outside (I mean, where’s the sun?)
Once you start looking at posts like this, you’ll realise some photos are ridiculous. No one stands with their bum poking out like that. No one has glitter eyeshadow, perfect winged liner and false lashes on when they’re spending the day watching rubbish TV in their ugly cosy clothes. Realising just how stupid some of these posts are will help you stop comparing yourself to them. Or, even better, you’ll compare yourself and think “wow do they not have anything better to do?”
Step 3: Unfollow
Yep, that’s right, unfollow people. Declutter your feed. Get rid of all those ridiculous posts and free yourself from their fakeness. What’s the point of following them if you think their posts are stupid anyway? Obviously there are accounts which make you feel bad about yourself, but they actually push you to be better. Kayla Itsines for example. Now that’s a good account to follow. She is one of the most motivational people on Instagram. But accounts like Alexis Ren don’t really give you anything except a dull feeling of failure and a huge amount of jealousy. Get rid of them. Time to detox without avoiding sugar and carbs.
Step 4: Look Up!
Okay so this is a massive one, I know it is. But give it a go! Instead of going to dinner with your friends and focussing on getting a beautifully curated photo of your food and drinks, look up. Talk to each other. Enjoy actually eating your food. Or if you go to see your favourite band play, just sing along and don’t film it (you don’t want to hear your awful singing the next day anyway).
This step is really about actually experiencing moments. Not just capturing the perfect photo or video so you get likes and “omg so jealous” comments tomorrow. Because really, at the end of the day, it’s the moments we’ll remember. Not the likes. So stop watching concerts through your camera, and stop putting the idea of likes in the way of the memories.
Step 5: Unfilter
So you stop focussing on getting The Photo when you’re out but sure, you still take few. That’s fine! Take photos of yourself having a good time with family and friends. Or take a picture of the beautiful view from your walk. By all means, take photos, I’m not saying everyone should get rid of their cameras and go back to a pre-smartphone Nokias. Just take photos of the moments which really matter and will hold some significance to you. And when you go to share it on Instagram, don’t spend forever editing it. Using multiple apps to change the brightness, saturation, sharpness and whatever else. Filters are there to be used but really, if a photo has been saved 3 times each with another layer of editing, is it really the same moment you experienced? Not really. Filter sparingly. Keep the memories as authentic as possible. At the end of the day, no one really cares if it’s bright or dark, Valencia or Clarendon.
So, how about it?
Instagram is only getting bigger and young people are getting more depressed. Taking these few steps and fighting against the Instagram cycle could make 2017 your year of self-love, confidence and happiness. Fill it with memories. Treasure the moments. Improve your experiences instead of your appearance.
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