The other day, when I read Betsy's post, I found myself quite relating to the parts she mentioned about only baring our most perfect selves on the internet. It especially struck a chord with me when I realized the sheer 'truthiness' of my workspace photo, that I loaded to Instagram mere hours prior.
To the immediate right of the pictured space, is a cardboard box/plastic laundry basket which is serving as makeshift storage for some maddening little odds & ends which have not yet found their homes within ours. And to the left, is a post-apocalyptic mess of a living room, complete with clothing, shoes, & couch cushions on the floor, fast food bags & empty water bottles cast carelessly & disgustingly over the coffee table.
And that pristine, whimsical coffee cup shot? Taken seconds before I knocked the cup over on the center console of my car, leaving me to resort to sopping up the mess with the jacket I was wearing at the moment, since I didn't have any napkins on hand.
I find it interesting how we bloggers showcase our photo-worthy spaces, despite the probable messes - big & small - that are surrounding us from day to day. Rather than the slight lies-by-omission we seem to be committing, I like to view it as finding & sharing the little snapshots of loveliness we can arrange amidst the chaos that is sometimes life. I find it inspiring, because I've never truly believed anyone in the blogging world really has a picture-perfect life, even if it looks that way. Rather, I took the opportunity to learn from them, finding seemingly perfect ways to pretty-up & present the imperfections in my life.
How do you choose which snapshots of your life to showcase? Have you ever been tempted to Instagram a photo of your messy house? Because I have... maybe one day, I will.
photos: instagram
13 comments:
YES all of this! must admit I'm not ready to Instagram the truth rather than the truthy bits - though filters always do make things look better :)
I like your take on it: "Rather than the slight lies-by-omission we seem to be committing, I like to view it as finding & sharing the little snapshots of loveliness we can arrange amidst the chaos that is sometimes life."
Sometimes that can be a really good thing to do and help us focus on the lovely bits amidst the chaos! There's a lot of backlash on the internet about it but ... I think when done well, presenting an edited portrait of life online is totally fine. Nobody wants to see my laundry pile, ya know? :)
I am totally guilty of this too. Just this morning I posted a picture of my shoes... but instead of taking it where I was standing... where there was a bit of dirt I moved to a rug. To make it look prettier. It does give you something to think about... what if for a day whatever we "instagramed" we took just as it was... without posing it to make it look better... to make it look dreamy?
Loved this post... definitely makes you think about the image we try to portray to the blogging/social media world!
Love this :) Yeah, I've never felt the need to literally air my dirty laundry online, but I did send some email pictures to some friends and family of my disaster of an office! I felt like I needed some accountability ha! Then, I got to send bragging photos of it when I got it all finished :) But I totally agree with you, we all love to find inspiration from other people's lovely little things, and so I see nothing wrong with putting your best self out there!
Shoot, my computer erased my comment the first time! This was a really interesting post, and thanks for directing us to the post that inspired it, which I also found fascinating! I find this to be true both on the internet, and in real life- we naturally only want to share certain parts of ourselves with the world. I started my blog to encourage myself to keep taking pictures, and when I ask myself what inspires me to do so, the answer is that I take photos because I find something to be beautiful and/or interesting. So, I would post photos of a mess (or even garbage) if I considered it to be interesting or in a way beautiful. Having said this, my version of "clean" is really, really messy ;)
Some Snapshots Blog
Jess
I love the real snapshots of everday - and mine tend to be messy most of the time {too busy to clean I say!}. Love your little spot filled with precious pictures and the way you stay organized.
Also, hope you don't mind, but I'm featuring your Sunday Currently on my blog for tomorrow - always love reading it every Sunday :)
xx,
Maya
ahhh, you are so sweet! thank you so much for mentioning me on your post! i'm going to check it out right now. i hope you are having a great day! :)
i completely agree with what you said about posting a photo of a mess if you considered it to be beautiful. that is something that the blogging world has taught me - how to find beauty in everything.
maybe i should start posting photos of my messy house at the beginning of the week, then posting photos of the clean results at the end of the week?! haha, i don't think even that amount of accountability would work on me :)
hahaha, the thing you said about moving from one place to another to take a photo of your shoes reminded me of this gif my friend sent me, of someone doing that exact thing. it was titled 'life of an instagrammer' or something like that. spot on!
exactly! i wonder if there is a blog out there that simply documents things exactly as they are? i'm sure it would make for an interesting [and comforting!] read.
those filters really do their job, don't they? maybe one day i'll be prepared to document life exactly as it is, but for now i'll stick with pretty-ing things up a bit :)
Haha! I love this. You're so right. When I was taking pictures of my bookcase for the DIY makeover post, I was trying to get it from just the right angle so you couldn't see that all of my formal living room furniture (just outside the frame) was covered with mis-matched sheets since our indoor-outdoor kitty likes to roll around in the dirt and then come cuddle up on our pristine white settee. Oh, life. But your perspective is awesome and we have to grab the lovely moments where they fall...even if we have to do a little "editing" just before the shutter clicks. :)
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