Predicaments of a Fashion Lover: A Week Without Instagram

This past week I’ve been without my beloved Iphone 5s because well, don’t take your phone to paint parties. A year later and I now know how bad it is for paint to be in phones. Don’t ask how it happened, I don’t know. All I got was paint everywhere, a few bruises and a dead phone the next day.

Anyway, I digress. I’ve been without Instagram for a week now. Yep, that’s right. I’ve had a week without any #throwbackthursday’s, artfully placed meals and the fitspo tanned Aussies.

And you know what? I feel fine. Better actually, because without having something to distract me, I’ve had a lot of work done. I don’t feel the need to get all FOMO over your Insta holidays or care about the latest must have eyebrow kits. I’ve been able to actually have my own life and damn, it doesn’t feel half good.

Instagram is now one of the best and successful marketing tools. Everyday you’ll be bombarded with beauty bloggers latest eye shadow palettes, or fashion bloggers summer ‘must have’s’ that seem to go on forever, Seriously, how many ‘must have’s’ do I need for summer? Just HOW needed is four new pair of sandals and six bikini’s because frankly, I’ve lived my life having such things before. I don’t need to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe for summer, it’s the UK and the weather is so bipolar, we get all four seasons in one day.

Maybe instead you have bearded muscle men popping up everyday, the new gym routine you need to try out or busty women in swimming costumes showing what they’re doing this summer. It might be the NEW IN with retailers or seflies captioned with #whatofit, #soznotsoz or the ever successful and original #seflie. There may even be a new #beflie’s in there for you to ogle at. And I know from last night on twitter (from my computer, oh so 2013) that Kylie Jenner has been going on a big Insta spree in the past week since she’s turned 18. Apparently she got a car from her 20-something boyfriend and a Birkin bag.

So this is where I ask, who cares? Instagram was built as a form of social media through photography, that’s how it started off as. Something fun and silly, where the best lighting wasn’t a priority. A week without it and I can fairly say I don’t miss it at all. I didn’t know I’d say that, for I loved Instagram. Those who have managed to create a living out of their blogging/instagramming, photography or products I applaud you. It’s a brilliant marketing tool and if you can use it successfully, props to you. Keep building up your empire, Nasty Gal started on Ebay so who’s to say Instagram can’t do the same for you?

If you are like me and use Instagram recreationally, please don’t get down on your appearance and compare your life to someone’s finely filtered image. Do you want the life they have? Are you staring at Kylie J’s latest image and getting frustrated at how easy her life seems to be, wealth and all? So you want that life for yourself? Are you spitting out nasty words because you’re jealous? It’s alright to admit if you are, I know I am because that seems like a life you can just step into and you already have everything. Her sis Kendall managed to reach high model heights from her families connections and still will, as she’s great for bringing a brand more money and attention. Doesn’t mean she’s the best model you know, just a good marketing tool.

But let’s take a step back. How much are people’s images affecting you? That instant little image shouldn’t affect you negatively. It really shouldn’t, I promise you. Your life wasn’t made to be rosy filters and Joy Division to play in intervals when things get quiet. Your primary goal isn’t to have abs, both male and female. It isn’t to be tanned, to hate your nose or thighs. It isn’t to grab your computer and buy the latest IT item or master how to cat flick like a pro.

Your life is to be messy; to have moments where you’re sitting in a car having music play quietly while you slowly let everything go. It’s to be difficult and confusing, it’s to have days hungover and messy hair, it’s to have moments where you’re questioning everything about and around you and then coming back together. It’s to have messy break ups where your heart shatters every time you smell their perfume or aftershave and learning a new way to fit your lips against someone else’s. It’s to mix up your style, holding on to things you loved since you were 15 and combining them into the new things you like. That’s an important word right now, like. Are you choosing clothes you actually like? Or are you just being a sheep with the masses? Are you doing something you like? Or are you doing what you think you ‘have’ to do with your life? We all can’t be the fancy Instagrammers of the world, but that doesn’t mean we have to feel crap about how our life is. We didn’t dream as a kid that one day we’d have 200K followers and posting images everyday. You want that now? Great, go do it! Seriously, do what you like and let it mould you. Let it break down any fears you have and build you up high.

If you’re feeling the ill effects of Instagram, the pressure to show off a life you ‘should’ have then take a deep breath. Remember that life on Instagram isn’t real life. It’s VSCO Cammed to the max and the lighting isn’t that sunny all the time. The body shapes aren’t important and a few big bloggers will use Photoshop to seem slimmer than they are. It’s sad isn’t it? How much a picture can affect you? All the negative body image issues have transferred from the pages in our Vogue magazine (the size of models is still a big issue) to our phone screens, mixed in between your friends smiling faces and landscape pictures of lands you’ve yet to see in the flesh.

So this is what you should take away from my week Instagram free; your life isn’t meant to be a filtered, Photoshopped and professionally shot image. You don’t need to succumb to the detox diet teas that are really just laxatives. You don’t desperately need abs like Millie MacKintosh or the VS models. And you really don’t need the latest must haves unless you really want them, genuinely. What you DO need is to remember that you are much more than your image, You’re brilliant and smart and capable of the world and more. You don’t need to focus on your body shape and your self worth isn’t determind by the number on a scale.