Lifestyle blogger? Oh you mean the life you pretend to have on instagram?

           8.17 pm: Laying in bed on a Friday night procrastinating the completion of several uni assignments due next week by scrolling (more like stalking) over Instagram, wondering how I can keep up with the subconscious upload competition of making it seem that #MyFridayNightIsBetterThanYours.

Upload an old holiday pic maybe? #TakeMeBack 

Maybe even a selfie?

Friday night in #Movies #Snuggles (insert appropriate emoji here)

Who am I kidding, I'm newly single have zero #snuggles and way too many selflies to compensate for it.

My friends are either out or with boyfriends and I've taken the night off with every intention to do assignments however, only to be lured into the realm of social media who decides to reiterate just how boring my life is in comparison to my fit and fab fellow IGers.

So what’s my next move?

Read a motivational post about how short life is and get stuck back into my work?

Maybe ill pop in my earphones and do some sit-ups planning how healthy I'm going to be, well, starting from Monday of course and then upload all my progress.

Contemplating just grabbing my phone and scrolling through contacts looking for an excuse to somehow glam up my lonely trackies evening and catch up with some other isolated soul who has nothing better to do than eat Fro-yo and bitch about everyone else who's out- and how we are "So over going out" (both completely aware we are only creating excuses for why we are not out).

However with my current motivation level I’ve somewhat willingly scrapped all the above options and while half-watching some Circa 1980 movie playing on the TV I continue to stalk, oh, I mean scroll through Instagram gliding by images of luxury, love, lattes and what is marketed to me as what the “ultimate life” should look like which includes images of channel, champagne and poolside cabanas.

Apparently meeting these criteria’s of such images constitutes you as a “lifestyle blogger” giving you 10K plus followers.

“Lifestyle blogger’ quite ambiguous, don’t you think?

Do you really need to have a certain lifestyle or follow a trend of a specific lifestyle to be eligible to blog?

For years I have wanted to blog, but with a fear of social media, and living a lifestyle far from meeting criteria of luxurious I was hesitant. I forced myself onto the Instagram scene, only to have an epiphany occur to me that, a picture can be misinterpreted and this misinterpretation can be beneficial in creating the illusion that my life is amazing!

So great selfie lighting, reverse camera, add filter and upload! Though my manic uploading of filtered fruit drinks, fresh manicures and red-eye removed clubbing shots I had yet another realization. I’m so indulged in trying to make my life seemly picturesque, when I haven’t stopped and though that it really is. I don’t need pictures of my friends and I to know that moment existed and that I am surrounded with amazing and loving people. This has unconsciously become part of my journey to being content within myself and knowing that even on these dead Friday nights thinking you are alone you have your own company and being completely content with that, which is the most difficult obstacle to overcome and knowing that obstacle may arise again, but having the ability to continually overcome it, that is real strength.

So, in those moment of being alone and vulnerable and social media eats you, just look at your own page and how great your life is and the people within it. Take your own journey to be able to be grateful even for the “boring” Friday night you’re spending watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off for the 75^th time.

Illusion misconception camera angles and lighting, lights camera action, welcome to your amazing life!

Anne Archer

March 2014