By Veronica Murphy
Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling: it’s addictive. You know you could be doing much more productive things with your time, but you’re stuck. There are few who haven’t been sucked into Instagram’s deep, dark hole of gawking at the lives of those who seem to have it all.
The perfect face, the enviable body, the endless getaways to the other side of the globe. Instagram is all about projecting your best moments, best angles and best self to the world. We continue to follow the footsteps of these people, be it celebrities or those who just appear more fortunate than us. But how does this really make us feel? The constant comparing is mentally exhausting.
A few weeks ago, Irish model turned fitness/health guru Roz Purcell uploaded an image to Instagram that garnered quite a bit more attention than her usual posts of recipes from her Natural Born Feeder book, or photos of her flaunting her gym gear.
The series of shots show firstly the perfect picture, the “Instagram worthy” shot. Swipe left, and she shows us the ones deemed by society as not good enough. Unposed as she frolics on the beach. She looks less like her picture – perfect self, and more like any one of us.
Her caption promotes a powerful message to everyone out there who finds it difficult to separate real life from life online. She reiterates; “this is the highlight reel.” Sometimes we may forget the 50 other pictures that came before the perfect shot. We show our best angle, we get the best lighting possible and even then that doesn’t seem to be good enough.
We then resort to filters and editing apps like Facetune and VSCO. It may be hard to believe when looking at Roz that she too can have her insecurities. She admits to having struggled with body image for most of her life during her modelling years. Conscious of her dimples and rolls, she has learned to acquire a “f*** it” attitude that I think we could all do with taking on.
I myself have followed Roz on Instagram for quite a while now, something about her just felt like a breath of fresh air, she felt a lot more authentic and genuine compared to some of the others on the app.
Unlike many of the big stars with perfect bodies on Instagram who promote weight loss teas and supplements that do more harm than good, just to make themselves a few extra bob, Roz has written her own recipe book, full to the brim of simple and most importantly healthy meals.
Roz is a force to be reckoned with, not afraid to hit back at the body shamers and doing things a little differently. If your Instagram feed is making you feel bad about yourself, do your mental health a favour and declutter.
If scrolling through your feed only makes you feel bad about yourself, you’re doing Instagram wrong. We are all too wrapped up in the social media bubble, filtering not only our photos, but also our true selves to conform to society’s ideals.
