To be, and not to Seem: Instagram or Real Life?

 In the Era of the Internet and social media it became popular to live a virtual life and create an image. What you really can do is not nearly as important as what you can write out of your own head. Instagram became the reason and the meaning to life, for which we travel, walk and eat in restaurants. Hashtags made our lives a great promotion of ourselves. Every page turns to PR-company. We're being obsessive about the number of subscribers as if the real number of our friends could grow as a consequence. We get the joy in every like as if some users would love us more.

              

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 My acquaintance constantly uploads selflies. I haven't seen her in a while, but when I stumbled upon her Instagram, I was amazed. Since I could remember, she was always plump. And now it looks like she has lost 20pounds, her face has started to look oval, the waistline has appeared and ,according to her Instagram, she's always showered gifts and flowers by some men. One day her photo was uploaded by my friend. There was an enormous difference. Judge for yourself!

 All her photos were photoshopped. But she kept creating a beautiful picture of her life. However, why has she decided to make so ideal Instagram? She set foot in the village. And everyone who could see her had to note that she was not what she was in her pictures. She should never leave the house to make her subscribers to cherish illusions. But this acquaintance of mine is not alone. There's a bunch of people like her. And everybody wants to live in another reality.

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 My advice is, when you surf your friend's Instagram with admiration, think about how many selfies your buddy could have taken before uploading. How long was she editing her pictures in Photoshop? How was she sucking her stomach in? Maybe she bought her dress only to make you jealous, didn't she? And she spent the last dime on it.

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 Once, my acquaintance saw an expensive nice car. Having run up to the auto, she cried: "I want you to take a picture of me and this vehicle as if it were mine! And give me your Furla bag. I will import this picture to Instagram to make it clear to my friends that I've accomplished a lot". But what has she achieved? A photo with other people's things?

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 And how often do your friends upload photos from a trip or from a fancy restaurant?And you're getting jealous. But wait, it's just a beautiful picture. You see them eating cold lobster or drinking a signature wine, but you can't see how they choose the cheapest sausages in a supermarket. That's not what should be dropped online. It's not normal to upload bad selfies, pictures of banal flat interior, bikini shots without sunken abdomen and push-up.

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 I wish it were otherwise and everybody could be sincere not only with some friends, but also with themselves. I'd like to open Instagram and see there some pieces of real life, beautiful for its truth and frankness. Just like in the past… Sometimes I'm looking at photos of those women. And I think: "Good heavens, wasn't it great!". They are happy, they are real, they were taking pictures just for themselves and their relatives. And they didn't use Photoshop! Yes, some of them weighed 70kilograms, and they didn't strive to change themselves. They loved themselves for who they were.

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 And it's an amazing thing to think that they have had by now only 50 photos - 50 photos for their whole lives. OK, maybe 100. But not 1000000000 as we have. They lived not for Instagram, they visited restaurants not for making some pictures of food. They were happy. They were living for the life itself, but not for "twisted" reality. Let's also live and not to simulate! That's how you can miss everything while choosing Instagram filters...