mind
11
Social media and perfectionism It’s not easy scrolling through your social media feeds and seeing beautiful people travelling to incredible places and experiencing amazing things. Sometimes we wonder why our photos don’t match up – even after we’ve posed 20 times, cropped out our mates with their eyes closed and applied a Lark filter, they still don’t seem to compare. The truth is that the photos you’re looking at are usually heavily edited and often give a distorted view of reality. For example, some celebs have been caught Photoshopping their pics, and pretty much everyone posts only the best bits of their life. (When did you last post a photo of yourself doing the laundry?) Others have been known to hire sports cars and swanky Airbnbs to give the illusion of a millionaire’s lifestyle. The reality? All smoke and mirrors. So, the next time you feel envious of someone else’s life, body, car or house – or strive to be as ‘perfect’ as them – remember what you’re aiming for probably doesn’t even exist.