Scrolling through social media can often bring more sadness than happiness if you’re constantly looking at ‘perfect’ images – but one influencer is keeping it real with her followers
It can be all too easy to compare yourself to strangers on the internet – but one woman has proven that sometimes, things are not all as they seem.
When you’re in a social media doom-scrolling hole, it can be really tricky to get yourself out of it. There are so many people who look flawless, with perfect skin, long luscious hair, and a body type that seems unachievable to so many.
But often, these perfect snaps are helped by camera trickery, filters, well-rehearsed posing, and many, many attempts to get the ‘ideal’ pic. In a bid to offer a slice of reality, influencer Liv, who posts on social media as @livlivinlife__, regularly shows people Instagram vs reality snaps to keep it real with her followers.
One of her posts shows two snaps that were taken seconds apart to show just how easy it is to transform what you look like in pictures with a few tweaks. She captioned the picture: “Same body, same worth, the only thing standing in the way is standards created by social media”.
In the picture on the left, Liv can be seen sucking her stomach in, posing with her arms up with a totally straight back. In the unposed picture, she has her arms down, isn’t breathing in, and is smiling comfortably. “One would be seen as accepted on social media, and the other would be criticised”, she said, admitting that it felt more “natural” to pose how she was on the right.
Speaking about social media, she fumed: “It’s the only place where it has become the norm to ever show our bodies in our posed, best position, and not dare show what it actually looks like when we’re moving about and doing our day to day activities, essentially what our body looks like the MAJORITY of the time. It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing everyone looks like they do at their best, but the truth is, they really don’t”.
She reassured people that “Posing, editing, filters, SO much goes into every single picture you scroll through on your feed”, warning them not to compare themselves to somebody else’s highlight reel. “IMAGINE HOW MUCH THAT CAN PLAY ON YOUR MIND!!! No wonder social media becomes a place of comparison and feeling worse about yourself when that’s all we are looking at day in day out”, Liv penned.
She said that she wanted to “change that narrative”, to show people that “both bodies are AS beautiful, AS worthy, and AS sexy”. Her words of wisdom continued, as she shared: “Once you learn to love your body at ALL angles, and realise that everyone has an UNPOSED version of themselves too, it makes self-acceptance and self-love a HELL of a lot easier”, and she then encouraged people to “get up and have a boogy” if they’re feeling low, encouraging people to “celebrate” themselves.
In the comments, people flocked to praise her for keeping it real, with someone writing: “I needed these posts. I’ve been feeling bad in my skin lately and it’s exhausting”, and someone else shared: “I adore your content, never stop queen.” Another commented: “You have helped me so much”.
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