THE DAY I REALISED LIFE WASN'T ALL ABOUT THE LIKES

Not too long ago I posted a very nice snap of me wearing a very nice outfit in front of a very nice backdrop on my Instagram page.
Anxiously refreshing my notifications ever so often the post simply wasn’t getting the amount of likes I was accustomed to and I suddenly caught myself caring a lot more than I should about this lack of engagement, indeed going as far as questioning whether the outfit was any good at all and if had suddenly lost sense of style.

Of course after some reflection I quickly realised how utterly ridiculous I was being but it made me realise the undeniable truth that we have all to some extent become addicted to the validation we feel every time someone presses “like” on our pic, a desires ‘high’ of digital acceptance every time we post a selfie, holiday snap or fancy meal. This has whether we like it or not at least to some extent led to us to becoming obsessed with having to constantly show us from our most “likeable” side online, often omitting the not so glamorous parts (I mean who would Instagram doing their laundry?!).

I know my follower numbers are no where near the dizzying heights of that of some of the fellow bloggers that started out around the same time as me and who have done a fantastic job in making a full time living out of it, but I realised a long time ago I was never going to change the way I dress or how I post on social media to facilitate growing a huge following. I have probably lost at least part of my audience when I got rid of my statement fringe or when I stopped wearing crazy hats but... fuck it, I grew up and my style changed, for the better in my opinion, and I am not going to “dress up”’to please any social media audience.

I also don’t use a bunch of useless hashtags or spend hours talking about myself to my phone via endless insta stories (mainly because no one needs to be subjected to my annoying voice) because that is just not me. I don’t judge anyone that does do any of the above and who as a result manages to make a bomb from sponsored posts, in fact I salute you for your entrepreneurship.

What I have learnt though is that I am not going to get upset when I spot that I have lost some followers or that my post isn’t seeing the amount of likes it should or used to get (everyone seems to struggle with that since Instagram introduced their pointless algorithm these days anyway) because it’s not a reflection on whether I am good person or whether I love fashion and expressing that through my outfits. I will continue to shoot my looks and write restaurants review because I love it and if I brighten up just one person’s day with a post than that is an added bonus.

Social media should not be social anxiety inducing but a creative outlet for ourselves to share with others, taken with a big pinch of reality salt.