Making Instagram A Happier Place

There has been a lot in the news recently about social media and why it's such a bad thing. From Kate Winslet banning her children from using social media and Instagram model Essena O'Neill who revealed the shocking truth behind many of her pictures.

And yeah, it's pretty shocking that we have got to a point where people are so obsessed with the image they put out online that they spend hours putting on makeup and posing just for one single selfie. 

Where less than a hundred likes is considered bad even though you probably couldn't name a hundred people that you know. 

Where people, like Essena, are getting paid to wear clothes and promote them online. 

Where we are constantly refreshing our feed every 5 seconds and hoping somebody else has liked our most recent picture, or even better commented that you are 'stunning' 'beautiful' 'perfect' etc. 

Where little girls are looking up at these scantily clad woman and aspiring to be them, forgetting that Photoshop and about 3775878 filters have been used to achieve such perfection. I mean hello, people do not look like that in real life nor do they wake up with a full face of slap on like those morning-world-I-have-just-woken-up-and-taken-a-selfie selfies seem to suggest! 

I will be the first to admit that I have on more than one occasion spent a whole afternoon girl crushing on somebodies Instagram account like you do. And yeah it's great because it fills those spare minutes you have standing at the bus stop, soaking in the bath or during TV adverts. However, Instagram is without a doubt my biggest downfall. It consumes my life to the point where I might just paint my nails or bake a cake because I need something to post. Like OMFG what if all 241 of my followers (why do I feel so bad about writing that?) simultaneously unfollow me? Not only that but it makes me feel a hundred times worse about body than I already do and somehow makes me think I have a million more flaws than everybody else in the world put together. 

Like why do I even keep logging back in?

For a while now- well as long as it took me to make a cup of tea- I have been thinking of an answer to that question. And the thing is that for every ten accounts on Instagram that make me green with jealously, there is one that inspires me with truly beautiful sunsets, quotes that are like somebody is reading my mind and snaps of gorgeous kittens asleep on beds. Accounts like Rosie's, Freya's, Bee's , Tania's, Kayley's , Hannah's and many more!

These woman are the real woman of Instagram! The people we should really be aspiring to because they take bloody good pictures that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Accounts like theirs are the reason I log back in to Instagram after promising myself I never will again. 

So it got me thinking, why do I follow half the people I do when they make me feel so bad about myself? It makes literally no sense.

So today I have made a conscious decision to unfollow all my old school friends who make me feel like my life is going down the drain, celebrities who really aren't role models in the slightest (yep I'm talking to you Miley!) and those random people who just seem to appear on my list!

Now when I refresh my feed I am faced with page upon page of autumnal snaps, blooming flowers, jewelry which is to die for and cakes which are so frickin' delicious and beautiful they make you put a couple of pounds just by looking at them! Instagram for me now is no longer a place to compare myself to others and wallow in pathetic self pity, but a creative outlet and place to go for inspiration on a daily basis. And to pen a phase from the home of the mighty McFlurry: I'm Loving It!

Will you join me in making Instagram a happier place?

Love Beth xx