Anxiety Surrounding Social Media
Hello!
I'm going to be honest, I struggled a little bit this week with blog topics. This isn't because I have no ideas, it's just that there are certain things that I'm not ready to speak about just yet or things that feel a little bit repetitive to write this week that need to get done, and one post (hopefully up at the end of the week!) that I haven't finished preparation for.
I've also been stressing because I've pretty much run out of photos and need to have another little shoot (anyone Worcester-based that fancies photographing me, hit me up) BUT whenever I've thought about photos, it's been overcast. And all of this stress got me thinking about our attitudes to social media and how the likes of Instagram is putting us all under an unpleasant level of pressure to be aesthetic and beautiful. So that's what I've decided to talk about today.
Actually, I'm not just doing this post because I've run out of photos. I've been blogging for 7 months now so I've taken a little bit of a scary step and have applied to be part of the Blogosphere network. This means that I might have the opportunity to work with other bloggers and maybe a few brands should I choose to. That being said, I want to make it very clear that in filling in that application, I made the executive decision not to monetise on this blog. I started this to help people and I still want that to be my focus. I might monetise in the future but for now, it's still just me and my laptop.
I am proud of this decision but I must confess to feeling a little bit inferior having filled out that form. They ask you how many reads you get, how many people are reading every month, and how many likes you get on your Instagram. In a sea of bloggers, I'm a tadpole. My readers are in the 100s, not 1000s. I don't get loads of likes on Instagram and I certainly don't have an agent. Filling out that form, I started to feel like I wasn't really a blogger, not a proper one anyway and it was the first time that I thought about giving up and deleting this website. But, having had a good old whinge to my mum, I was reminded that I work really hard on this and who cares if I don't have a huge platform? I get reads on every post so I'm obviously doing something right.
Though it's not just people who blog getting this feeling of inferiority from internet platforms. It's pretty much everyone with an account. I mean, have you ever been trawling through Instagram and wondered how Tom from school is getting on? Then looked him up to find that he's got the most refined, beautiful, perfect Instagram grid you've ever seen in your life and 6000 followers despite seeming pretty damn normal at school? Yeah, I've been there. And I must say, having only joined Instagram in January to promote this blog, Instagram is so much effort!
I often joke with my friends about being rubbish at Instagram because I'm not aesthetic, not particularly classically good looking, and I don't really think my photos are that interesting. But, my Instagram pictures are still cultivated. They have filters on, I work on my captions, and some of them have been taken purely for the blog Instagram. And that's something I really want people to understand. However much I dislike it, I'm still buying into this whole world of filters and hashtags (though hashtags are still really not my thing!). Let me give you some examples.
Recognise this? It's from my International Women's Day post. It was supposed to be a powerful shot showing who I am. In a way it does but how do you feel about it if I tell you that Isabella (photographer of this) and I walked for half an hour to find the perfect backdrop? That I had made a special effort with my makeup for it? Yes, I like this shot a lot but it's not a representation of reality.
Take this one. Joe took over 400 pictures for a single blog post. Yup. 400+ on the basis that there would be 10 "good" ones.
So what's my point? The point is that we should keep in mind that social media is not a representation of reality. And to call myself out as well. I'm not saying that reading this post will stop those feelings of inferiority as you scroll through social media. I guess I just want you to realise that this is a problem for everyone. You're not doing any worse than anyone else and you are perfectly fine as you are.
As always, feel free to share/get in contact, I'd love to hear from you.
Lots of Love,
Sarah xxx
