The Full Story

The thousand words that a picture speaks are often not enough. So, we post more and more and MORE of them in an attempt to tell our story. Except it's really not our story- at least, not the whole story.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was telling me about this adorable family that lived near them. They were all beautiful, the kids were smart and athletic, the parents were successful... essentially, they were the whole package. The mother later appeared as one of my suggested friends on Facebook, so I clicked on her profile and began doing some of that jealousy-stalking. I saw pictures of her cute clothes, adorable kids, a beautiful house, and I was so envious of this life she lived. I then became fixated on creating a life like that for myself.

Just a few days after this, my friend and I were talking about the family again, and she revealed a pretty big secret that they had been keeping. For privacy reasons, I won't go into who, what, when, or where, but regardless, it got me thinking, WHY was I jealous of that mom at all?

That, my friends, is the power of our "social-media-selves."

This woman's social-media-self had a perfect life if you asked me. But her true self didn't. And that's the kicker, boys and girls! We scroll through our Instagram feed or creep on strangers on Facebook without even an OUNCE of an idea about what's going on outside the 1080x1350 pixel boxes.

Naturally, we post about the things we want to celebrate like graduations and weekends at the lake. Of course no one is posting to brag about their cheating spouse, their astronomical financial debt, or their poor health. Even the most open and honest people don't actually share everything on social media. This realization was a harsh but necessary reality check for me. Not everything is as peachy keen as it appears to be on social media.

Allow me to put myself on blast for just a moment.

I am guilty of using some editing in my photos to do a little nip-and-tuck. I've blurred out a pesky zit in the first picture, whitened my teeth and resized my arm in the third... need I go on? While it seems harmless, I am creating the exact same false image that I criticize others for making on social media.

Social media is a great place to make connections and keep up with old friends, but don't let it dictate your life or make you believe that someone has it all just because they look like they do in their pictures. It only provides unrealistic perceptions of others and creates a lot of negative self-talk, and we don't need any more of that!

Think outside of that thousand words a picture is speaking to you. Did we really get the full story?