The social media phenomenon is amazing. Playing psychological tricks with us whether we know it or not. Scrolling through our numerous news feeds every morning, every night before bed, during meetings, when we’re out with friends, chilling with our partners, on the toilet…You get the point. I mean, you know you have a problem when you can’t even take a dump without doing your addiction. #Hygiene. We have all fallen under the spell of social media. It has become us, we have become it. Welcome to 2016.

At this point, there’s no turning back. We’ve been tricked into thinking that who we are is defined by how other people see us through our social media. Was what we did even worth it if we didn’t post a beautiful photo showing off our experience? Furthermore was all the trouble of formulating that perfect photo even worth it, if it didn’t get an impressive amount of likes?

I was talking to my friend the other day about her experience with some mates on a night out. Basically, two of her girl friends were drinking the night away, everyone else was bored and the night was dragging out. Meanwhile those two friends were hooking up with random guys- despite them both being in committed relationships. Midnight rolled along, everyone else was not only bored, but disgusted at this point. The next day, those friends posted photos on Facebook, tagging everyone saying “We had the best night with everyone, drank away our savings but it was totally worth it.” As  Friend Number One posted this, she was cuddling the boyfriend that she was cheating on last night. When I saw my friend tagged in this, I thought “aww I’m glad she had a good time, looks like it was a blast.” Then I received the phone call… The trick is, everyone was smiling in the photos, the caption was a phony crock of shit and those of us who didn’t know the full story believed said ‘crock of shit’.

Basically, social media is a formulated highlight reel of people’s lives which is controlled by each person to the highest degree. Not many people post things like “OMG my kid was a little shit today, can’t stand them sometimes.” They only post photos of their “perfectly behaved baby” who was “so calm during our coffee date today!” No one posts “My boyfriend is a douche lord, he won’t even reply to my messages!”…They just post photos of them kissing in the sunset, declaring themselves #RelationshipGoals. Ummmm………….#CrockOfShit. Where did the ‘humble’ in ‘humble brag’ go?

‘Who we are’ is how we treat other people and how we treat ourselves. ‘Who we are’ is made up of those special and unique qualities that we have as individuals who each have a special place and purpose on this earth. We are not that perfectly edited selfie or those posts showing off our ‘perfect’ life. Let’s look up from our phones, enjoy our food, enjoy our friends and family and be present in the moment. You are good enough, I am good enough and our quality of life is not measured by our news feeds or by the amounts of likes and followers that we have. #CrockOfShit.

Lots of love,

Magda xx