Photo: Magnolia Journal
EvenJoanna Gainessuffers from Instagram anxiety sometimes!
“With every picture I found myself critiquing if there were messy backgrounds or blurry smiles,” Gaines writes in a personal essay. “Eventually, I realized that I was letting this small square on my phone become yet another thing to perfect,” she adds.
“There is a certain, creepy allure to a place where we can present ourselves any way we choose with very little accountability,” Gaines writes. “But one could argue that the more versions of ourselves we present to the world, the less real any one of them can be.”
However, the designer doesn’t believe that Instagram is all bad. She admits that “beauty and inspiration” exist on social media, and plenty of people benefit from them, but she challenges people — herself included — to stop critiquing others and comparing their photos to their own lives.
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In these moments, she says, she will stop scrolling and put down her phone.
“Don’t get me wrong; I love to snapphotos of my kidswhenever it’s physically possible,” Gaines writes. “My camera roll is constantly full because of it, but when I hear myself start to say something like ‘move slightly to the left’ just so I can get the perfect angle, that’s when I know it’s time to check myself. That means putting my phone somewhere it won’t be a distraction.”
“Perhaps I’ll post that photo in a few days when I have some distance from it and a fresh frame of mind,” she continues. “Or maybe I won’t. There are no true rules or set timeline. What I can’t get back to later is the beautifully imperfect view that’s unfolding right in front of me—no edits required.”
To read more, pick up the Spring 2019 issue ofMagnolia Journal, on newsstands now.
source: people.com
