From expertly filtered photos to pithily worded captions, Instagram provides users with the creative license to carefully curate their lives for onlookers. With users recording everything from where they go to what they think to what they have for breakfast, the social media site which has 500 million monthly active users, has become a key motor of self-image and online identity.
But while the site’s reach might be exponentially growing, it is not without its cynics, as Larissa May’s recent essay has proven. The Instagrammer has spoken out about the moment she realised she was living a lie on social media and promoting a false life to the world.
Writing in an essay for Time magazine’s Motto, May said it was while she was covering New York Fashion Week for respected outlets that she came to terms with the fact she was unhappy.
“After the show ended and I was able to decompress, I began sifting through my photos looking for my next great Instagram shot. The winner? A picture of myself on a street corner,” she recounts. “My fingers quickly drafted the caption, “Jay Chillin’ street side pt.3,” and pressed post without much thought.”
“But this time, I was consumed by social media guilt. I hid behind my carefree caption failing to share the truth behind my overwhelming anxiety, sleep deprivation, physical pain and feeling of inadequacy. I wasn’t living my dream at all, I was telling half the story.”
She said while her Instagram account perpetuated the life of a “‘superwoman!’ - student at a top tier university, blogger, entrepreneur, sister, etc,” she was in fact struggling and becoming increasingly disconnected from herself.
“In reality, I was barely holding it together. I neglected to share the other side of my reality: 17-hour workdays, debilitating anxiety and behind the scenes fails (knees meet street). The more connected I became with my digital dreamworld, the less connected I was to myself.”
May has not quit social media since this realisation but has instead set up a project called @halfthestory which endeavours to counter the false reality of social media and draw attention to the aspects of life it eclipses. She describes it as: “a place to leave social personas behind and create a community of supportive dialogue around who we really are when we’re not crafting ourselves for perfection.”
On the feed individuals share a range of individual personal stories displaying their vulnerabilities and their aspirations and more. From people talking about having a stroke to staying in toxic relationships to having an eating disorder to more positive stories like setting up businesses, it captures the bigger picture of life.
May herself has continued with her own personal account and while the odd posing and food shot lingers, the vast majority of the imaages are captioned honestly and candidly and include her not wearing makeup and having fun with her friends.
