Pics or it didn't happen.

180 likes.

1500 followers.

Insta worthy.

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We're obsessed, I'm obsessed! This reality check isn't pointing fingers, if anything I'm really talking to myself. Because I love Instagram. I love cute pictures, fluffy kittens, pretty smiles, hugging friends, sunshine and rainbows...you know all the quality, aesthetically pleasing times you find on this social media platform.

The thing is as much as I love Instagram...I hate it. People get bullied, upset over their number of likes, obsessed over the "perfect picture" and it becomes all consuming. You sit in class thinking of what you're doing this weekend and the perfect posed picture to post. At breakfast before you take a bite of deliciousness you're first thinking of snapping that picture. And the best is we take plandids. I was introduced to the plandid terminology this summer by a wonderful group of students, its a planned candid. (Don't lie we've all done it *laugh, smile, hair flip, click*) Because we're obsessed, its runs our life whether we want to admit it or not.

Here's the big kicker, it's all a lie. Those pictures all are smokescreens and lights to make this life look pretty, perfect, and in place. Life doesn't look like that. That "relationship goals" couple? They fight at night over communication problems. That ideal clique of friends? They all talk behind each others back. All those makeup flawless selfies? Sometimes cover up all the worries and insecurities.

It's

all

a

lie.

Were looking for a number of likes over being liked.

We pose for perfect plandids over creating honest moments.

We're trying so hard to capture beauty rather than admire it.

We want attention rather than connection.

What I'm trying to say is don't let Instagram be "goals" in any way in your life. Not relationship goals, not life goals, not workout goals, not food goals. Let it be life sharing and community creating, let it be uplifting. Let it stir something in you to put down the phone and strive for connection rather than attention. Seek for true aesthetic in life. One formal definition for aesthetic is "concerned with beauty".

So, rather than the perfect back drop or filter, whitened teeth and makeup, foamed coffee or cute kittens I want to be concerned with a different type of beauty. The beauty of people. I am concerned with the life I live and if it emulates beauty, beauty that draws attention to a greater purpose and deeper love. I don't want to have an image based off the number of likes, followers, or shares. I want my image to be of the beauty I surround myself with. Something bigger, something deeper, something from within. You can't capture that in a 4 by 6.