Instagram vs. Reality: How to Stop Comparing Your Everyday to Someone Else's Highlight Reel

Have you ever seen a beautiful place online then gotten there and thought to yourself? What the heck this doesn't look anything like what I saw! How about seeing someone who looks like they have their life 100 percent together, and then you meet them and find out they are clueless jus like you! This happens more often than not, because social media tends to showcase the highlight reel of a person's' life, rather than their everyday. I cannot tell you how many times I was flabbergasted when I arrived to a place because what I saw in real life DID NOT match what I saw online. Or how many times I questioned my timing and placement in life because I was looking at someone's travels, or relationship, or job success, or whatever online and it did not match where I was at. This post is going to offer you some humor by jumping on the current Instagram trend and showing you some of my personal Instagram vs. Reality moments; and it just going to serve as a fun reminder to not take yourself, life, and definitely social media too seriously. So without further hesitation let's get into it!

Instagram Versus Reality: Beautiful Destinations

Tulum is a beautiful place! Everytime my boyfriend I looked up places online we found countless images of instagram worthy spots; and cute street shops. It seemed to have an impeccable vibe and seemed to offer everything that we wanted. We went in expecting nothing but beauty, and in these first two shots you see, we found it. I found the Follow your Dream sign that I saw everyone pose with on Instagram, and cute little places like the one shown here on the bottom right lined the streets of Tulum Beach Road. However, these places were not the only ones we saw while vacationing in Tulum.

We also saw plenty of places that looked like the two of these shown underneath. Many places had been shut down or condemned, closed off by debris and tape. Trash littered the streets anywhere that an establishment did not take care of it. These places did not get like this overnight, they are just things that you don't see on people's Instagrams. We had to pass both of these destinations to make it to that Follow you Dream Sign. And fun fact about that photo, there was actually a huge construction site behind it on the left side of the road! We had to angle the photo so it was an eye-sorer. This is not to discredit Tulum's beauty. It definitely had some, and there were Instagram worthy places; this is just to show you while someones Instagram feed may showcase nothing but paradise and fun, there is more to everything than meets the eye.

Tulum is also known for more than just it's streets, it is also said to have beautiful beaches and amazing beach clubs. Images like the two below are examples of things I have posted on my Instagram. A fabulous cocktail (a lemon margarita rimmed with tajin for those who were wondering) and a picture perfect shot from inside a beach hut at one of the beach clubs. These images evoke a feeling of a tropical paradise and hopefully make someone want to go on vacation. That's the goal! To show the beauty! But what about what isn't shown?

Like this.....tons and tons of seaweed lined the shores and oceans of Tulums beaches while we were there. In fact, it made the beaches and oceans almost unusable , that is unless you were comfortable with seaweed constantly brushing up against you. But the average person won't take a photo of this and show it online, because they would rather you see the cute beach hut, not the seaweed filled ocean.

Pro tip that I have learned in regards to seaweed in Mexico, go during the fall and winter months. The seaweed is gone or greatly reduced in those months. Come spring and summer the seaweed really starts to pile up, and while many beachfront locations do their best to keep up with it, it can be very difficult to manage.

Instagram Versus Reality: Amazing Experiences

When we visited Ek Balam we were amazed by the beauty of the ruins. There is no secret ugly ruin here, this place was full of majestic structures and stunning scenery. The views from the top of these structures were breathtaking and I was so happy to share them, and the beauty of this place with others; but something that a lot of people do is they just show the destination, not the journey. They don't show how they got there....

This...this is how we got there. By bear crawling our way up 106 steps while clutching all of our stuff. It was hot, it was steep, and it was a little scary LOL! But we made it and the view was worth it! This just goes to show you that there is always a journey to get to the end goal, don't let a photograph fool you into thinking that the path is easy for them and not you. Those images from the top don't show the climb we took to get there!

The Daniel Popper Statue, another great thing to experience in Tulum. It is a magnificent sculpture that blends nature and architecture into one. Massive, beautiful, and totally Instagram worthy this place is hot spot attraction for many tourists. People line up to get photos like these inside of this impressive statue. But again, you are only seeing it from one angle, what if we showed you what it looks like from behind the scenes...

Long lines, and incredible heat; that is what isn't usually posted on Instagram. Unless someone is being honest and giving you tips on how to best tackle an activity and telling you how to beat the lines and the heat they probably wouldn't show you these bottom images. They are not extremely flattering haha but again just showing you that behind every Instagram shot, there is a real person who went through a real struggle to get that shot! Just because we got the shot did not make us immune to the sweltering heat or the impatience of waiting in a long line!

Instagram Versus Reality: Perfect Couples

Besides beautiful destinations, and amazing experiences another thing that is often portrayed perfectly online are couples and relationships. Cute and romantic photos likes this one are posted with some kind of loving caption as they set the expectation that life always looks like this. Now, while we try really hard to be honest in admitting we are not perfect, images like this of my boyfriend and I do flood my Instagram. Why!? Because they are cute! And everyone likes to show off their partner once and awhile.

However, do not make the mistake of thinking because you see continuous cute shots of couples online that they totally have their ish together and have the perfect relationship. No one does, us included. What you didn't see was how hot it was this day, how we were both covered in sweat and grumpy because we just wanted to swim but I insisted on getting cute couple pictures. You didn't see how dirty the bottom of my feet got, or how he had to click the button for the tripod to take our photo while simultaneously holding me up. You didn't see us bicker for a whole 5 minutes on how high my leg could actually go or how far back I was willing to lean haha! All that to say, pictures are beautiful and can tell wonderful stories, but don't be fooled into thinking they are always telling the whole story.

Instagram Versus Reality: Selfies

When people take selfies, or have portraits taken of them, the goal is to look good and feel good about the shots. Most people don't look exactly how they do in their selfies in real life. And that is because they are posed and focused on whatever kind of vibe they are trying to give off in that photo. For example, in these photos I was trying to go for a sultry and cool vibe while also showing off how cool these fancy drinks were! I am not a naturally sultry kind of girl, in fact I am more of the goofy, quirky kind of girl. But these photos (hopefully) don't show that, and they (hopefully) give off my intended vibes.

This photo is a more realistic one. One where I am belly laughing and having a grand old time being my awkward self. Still enjoying this fabulous bar and drinks but a lot less enticing. This photo doesn't show off the drinks or the venue as well and does not inspire others to come. Again, this just to show you that when you see people online and you think they always look perfect, just remember no one wakes up that way, and 9/10 times (because candid photos are a thing) they know their photograph is being taken and they are properly prepared for it.

Instagram Versus Reality: Food

I love food, like I mean really love food. And all my fellow foodies know that when you love food you have to document it! But just as with everything else in this blog post...not everything is how it seems! I took this photo when my food came out because it looked BOMB DIGGITY and I am a HUGE fan of octopus. I was PUMPED to eat this! Butttttt if I am being totally honest, it didn't taste half as good as the photo looks. It was super rubbery and being a huge texture person this freaked me out.

We had octopus several times on this trip, and this was my least favorite one by far. But you would never know based off of the photo!! I am not going to mention this place by name, because I have eaten there before and thought the food was fine, so this could have just been my personal taste because like I said I am a texture person. This just goes to show you yet again that not everything is as it seems online.

That's it for today! And think these are just a fraction of my Instagram vs Reality moments, like maybe 1 percent of them. This post's goal was to share my reality and be totally transparent with you and to hopefully highlight that not everything you see is as it seems and to take social media with a grain of salt. I use this post to hopefully inspire you to stop comparing. I do not mean it to deter you from either posting nice photos or liking nice photos. Come one we all love the Insta worthy shots! And Instagram can be like an art form sometimes and we all want to show off our best selves, that's only natural. However, when you are showing off your best self, don't be afraid to show your real stuff once and awhile too! People connect to transparency and vulnerability and you never know who you may be helping or connecting with by showing some fun moments like these.

That's all for today! I hope you found value in this post.

Until next time,

Steph