Social media is filled with perfect, cropped, airbrushed, filtered versions of snippets of our lives, made to look natural when in reality it's anything but. A picture of the Christmas dinner table laden with festive food and crackers hides the hungry faces ravenous to tuck in, hungrily waiting for the perfect insta-worthy pic to be captured before life can resume again. Something which I know all too well; a picture of a couple so in love and happy can easily hide that in reality, the only thing perfect about it is the perfect way it manages to hide the bruises and the reality of the abuse, because for that second it took to capture that image for eternity, it's easy to pretend, it's easy to fake being perfect. It's a vicious cycle because as you log on to social media, you're bombarded with people begging for their lives to be noticed, measuring their level of perfection through likes. Of course not every picture has a depressing reality behind it, I'm just saying how easy it is to hide it, through the likes of social media, if you wish.

Every now and then you see someone break- they let down their 'perfect guard' and are real- whether it be about a breakup, work, family etc. It happens rarely and usually the post is deleted within a few hours before they put their 'prefect guard' well and truly back in place, erasing the post like it never happened...quickly change their profile picture where they look bomb AF to reassure everyone that despite that little blip of reality, they are STILL perfect!

Social media is essentially the perfect way to fake perfection- you choose what goes on there, you can crop, filter and remove every tiny aspect you're not happy with. But nowadays our lives are becoming increasingly more dictated by social media- I mean how many apps do you have on your phone? How often do you have your phone in your hand? How many natural moments have been stopped because you just HAD to get that insta snap or snapchat it? It's created an unrealistic 'ideal'.

We weren't born with these ideas of 'perfect', society has made it this way. We learn that we should feel insecure if we don't have whatever the newest 'perfect trend' is...thigh gap, massive lips, tiny waist, massive hips...but NEVER fake (of course) and only if we're perfect are we allowed to post it or we'll get ridiculed...?

Just remember, real life has no filters and is way more beautiful! We're not supposed to just be happy all the time- live life, experience all those emotions and appreciate each one because it means you're actually LIVING you life <3