Reply To: The woman that has everything

I will also add, I don’t think most regular people who post to social media do so with the intention of deceiving people into thinking their lives are perfect. The divorced friend I mentioned? I think her vacay photos made it to social media because those were the actual fun times in her marriage… they weren’t miserable all the time.

When I was new to my city, I posted a bit to IG. I’d moved by myself. I’d share cool-to-me things I was doing or seeing. Granted, IDK what the perception of my feed was, but I know I’d caption my posts about how excited I was to be here — because I very much was — but it was also a lonely experience and nobody who took the posts at face value would’ve known. However, I think my loneliness could’ve been obvious to anyone paying attention to the uptick in posts. I was using social media as a tool to feel connected. I doubt I’m the only one who has done that.

Not to mention, we probably all also know someone who “vaguebooks” or downright overshares their problems on social and found it odd that they put so much of themselves out there like that. People will have negative opinions — like, “oh, she’s just asking for attention” — even if someone is making an attempt to “be real” on the internet.

Because again, it’s not real. It’s a snippet of a life and that life is probably full of ups and downs.