Social

When you think about it, life is a lot like Instagram

Notification: Sarah shared a new picture!

Caption: Dream as if you’ll live forever

Inspiring words…

But really, Instagram is a lot like life

Follow the people you like, unfollow the ones you don’t, block the creepy guys that would shout from across the street, “Hey baby lemme see that sepia toned ass.”

We rely on an app that we open for validation but leave from with deflation

You scroll through pictures of empty faces and pleading eyes

Sorority sisters smile about slimming waistlines

Frat bro’s fraternize with their ability to feel invincible

The lonely kid from high school posts another landscape because he doesn’t feel he’s good enough to be on the other side of the lens

That girl you never really talk to posts a picture of a tree by the quarry because you know she’s fallen into a pit and needs help but you’ll be damned if that’s your problem…you just like it and keep scrolling.

The stick figure girl that grew up everyone’s hero posts a picture of her not wearing enough clothes because she looks so sexy, but the look of her ribcage mirrors jail cell bars that she’s locked herself behind

You see we’ve turned our social life into these social platforms.

We monetize love by giving out likes

We give compliments through comments as shallow as our phone screens

We scroll past what we don’t like in hopes of our problems disappearing

We report the pictures too negative for naïve minds

We make edits to the shadows we hide under our eyes

We showcase our best moments like they’re on exhibit at a museum, so that everyone who walks by thinks that you’re actually thriving instead of pining

Double tap the things you like just to make sure they’re still there because the thought that all good things come to an end lingers in the next scroll you make.

Turn up the brightness, like it’s a switch to your happy. Enhance the highlights and sharpen the smiles that cover the hurt from searching for acceptance.

And never feeling like 237 likes is enough to make you feel good about yourself because the reality is the one person you post a picture for can only like you once

So at the end of the day, take a minute to post a picture of yourself.

Make the location life because you’re going to start living

Double tap it, triple tap it, crack the screen, not to make sure you’re still there, but because you love yourself

And don’t bother with a caption because you’re worth too many damn words to put on the page

Life is made up of pictures, but more importantly it’s made up of moments…moments that we can’t capture, or post, or share. They’re made for us specifically. And the day you start really living those moments is the day realize that your like is the only one that matters.