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| a great reminder for today. |
guys, i read
this today and i LOVED it. it's on
instagram's envy effect. oh wait, here's
yet another link to it. because. it. kicks. ass.
if you aren't going to read it, here's a little summation. it's about the snippets of lives that we see on the internet. and about what we edit out of our status updates, what's just out of the corner of that square crop on your photo. it's incomplete. they are moments that are highs, which is why we want to share them.
but what about all the other moments? the photo may be of the great outfit you picked out today, but what about the days you don't get out of your sweatpants? niequst [the author] also points out the happy couples that don't share their fighting, or the great meal you made but not the mess to be cleaned up.
again, these are the moments to be shared. no one wants to see your dirty dishes. no one wants to see you in sweatpants [i mean this mostly to myself, as a reminder]. the things you want to share with other people - and strangers in some cases - are the highlights of your life, of the things you do.
but the result? it's that everyone lives perfect lives without those tense, awkward, heartbroken moments. that spouses don't fight, that chicken doesn't get burnt, that you don't have bad hair days. it's just not realistic. and part of the point of increased networking is to be there for one another, is it not? to share in times of joy and triumph, but also help one another when things aren't going their way.
there are days that this social-media-filter really effects me. days when i would get a negative pregnancy test yet again, and hop online to see four more girls who went to my high school were pregnant. days when i would feel so fat, being unable to get my skinny jeans to make me look skinny thanks to my fat bulge, but would see a girlfriend in a bikini with her perfect flat belly. days when i would be feeling a little lazy, just lounging around with the tv, and would see a facebook friend out in front of the coliseum. it makes you feel bad. people have topped documenting their struggles, and the result is facebook news feeds and pinterest home pages and instagram shares filled with just successes. and if you are down, it's easy to be knocked further down looking at what everyone else has and you don't.
i know i am guilty sometimes. i look at it as sharing my high points, the
things people will be interested in. and fights i may have with pi,
well, those are personal. but i try to branch out, too. i recently
started sharing about our
infertility issues, i blogged about the
outrageous stress of going back to school
while working and volunteering. and i want to continue to blog about
the challenges i face, as well as the high points i have. i don't think i'm as bad as some [helloooo, i instagramed a pic of my busted-up knee last week], but i could make some improvements too. i want to be
real with everyone. i want them to know the highlights as well as, sometimes, the low points.
i'm making some changes to my blog, and one of the changes i want to make is to be more forthcoming. to share with you all a bit
more of me [yes, there IS more], and to be real. to share my struggles so i can connect with people and help participate in a community; one in which we share our high highs, but our low lows as well.
post something REAL today. put it out there, on some social media platform you use. step out from behind the veil of perceived perfection. it doesn't have to be a secret, just something real - piles of laundry, or the pizza you ordered in for dinner because you didn't cook a martha-stewart-style meal. it will be refreshing, i promise.
here's my SOMETHING REAL today:
my blood results from last week reveal that i am still pregnant, according to my hcg levels. pretty disappointing. should all be done by now, but it isn't. so i have to go get by blood taken yet again at the end of the week. and let me be a little bit more real by telling you that i don't do well with needles in my veins. i've puked half of the times my blood has been taken since this pregnancy disaster began. so i don't know where this leaves us or what will happen after i get my blood results at the end of the week, but it's disappointing. and i wasn't going to share it because... i don't really know. i just wasn't.
til next time...
