How many of us have found ourselves scrolling through Instagram and immediately wondering, what am I doing wrong???!!! Should I be traveling more? Does everyone have more friends than me? Why don’t I have a second house at the shore or in the Poconos? Are other families really spending this much time together and enjoying every minute of it?
As we scroll through pictures of beach vacations, backyard barbecues, concert nights, family adventures, and carefully curated sunset photos, it can start to feel like everyone else is living their best life while we’re somehow falling behind.
Ugh, Instagram and social media, we really hate you sometimes. Let me begin to count the ways…
1.Give us access to everyone’s highlight reel
- Encourage us to compare our everyday lives to someone else’s best day
- Remind us of gatherings, vacations, and events we were not a part of
- Create the illusion that likes, comments, and followers equal meaningful connection
- Make us forget that many of the people commenting “Beautiful!” on our post may not even say “hi” if we see them in person
The truth is that most people aren’t posting real life and the day to day in and outs. All of the arguments we referee with our kids, the boring days where our kids do nothing but stare at their phones because we still have to work, the financial strain that summer can present trying to entertain ourselves and our families which are all very real parts of summer. We compare our behind the scenes reality to someone else’s carefully edited photo that was taken 20 times before they got the perfect one.
This summer, try to remember that a meaningful life is not measured by the number of vacations, poolside photos, or the number of likes on a post. It is sometimes found in the ordinary moments that rarely make it onto Instagram: laughing around the dinner table, taking an evening walk, watching a movie with your kids, enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, or simply making it through a difficult day and realizing there is a little more day left to enjoy because the sun stays out until after 8pm. Your summer does not have to be instagram perfect to be valuable so enjoy the small moments and remember that instagram is not the goal, it is just a moment in time.
