It is ironic to be writing this blogpost today as I'm one of those people on Instagram who has her own public profile since 2015, but I somehow felt like sharing with you a raw truth about Social Media and why it is okay to sometimes hate it, distance yourself from it, even when you are “a social influencer” (I absolutely despise this word), or you have a blog and a public page on several social media platforms.
I’ve recently come to a realization that prioritizing my own well-being is definitely the most generous gift I could offer myself.
As much as I love what I do, and am so grateful of everything going on, I feel sometimes overwhelmed by the pressure I can sometimes be put under. Especially that at times, I already have so much on my plate on a personal level just like all of you that I don’t feel capable of really keeping a high profile on my platforms. Furthermore, I personally think that social media is fun, everything related to it is fun, the power it has is impressive and the impact it can have, we can have on others is even more impressive. I like showing my audience some personal stuff from my daily life while keeping the most important stuff away from the spotlight because I’m the type of person who believes that in order to protect my bubble of joy, I should keep it low-key when it comes to social media. I have mixed feelings about oversharing my personal life on my platforms without judging anyone else who does that.
What led me today to be finally putting up this post is the reply of one of my followers who was replying to one of my stories about some Q&A I posted about; “A bad habit I have: To zone out from the world when I’m overwhelmed” saying “That’s a good habit! You always need time for yourself”… and she was right. But I always felt that the social pressure created by social media has led me to react in some negative way where I would want to disappear for days and be unreachable over What’s App and my phone. Some of you may tell me that it was my choice to have this type of life, and that’s true, but talking about its downsides is important and essential. I’ve been in the field for three years now and trust me it’s not just about the glitters and the good life you see online. Trust me, what you see is just a fraction of someone’s life.
The past month has been really tough for me, on a personal level, it was a time where I had to reevaluate some great decisions and really take a step back from personal stuff I had to deal with. I was on the verge of a breakdown and got really sick during the same time, it was unbearable. And trust me, during times like these, you certainly won’t be able to keep up with your Instagram account, or your blog or anything related to PR, or work, or even life as a whole. You just need some time off, from everything and everyone. And it’s okay.
In my case, I just decided to cut off any form of communication with everyone, I just tried to stay in touch with my closed ones who were aware of my personal matters. As for the rest, I’m really sorry for coming out as a rude person who would just keep her texts on What’s App unread for weeks. I want to highlight on the fact that What’s App can make communication a lot easier at work but I feel somehow that there should always be a sort of distance with people you work with, meaning that your professional relationship should be limited to phone calls and e-mails, using What’s app as substitute for these tools can turn into an invasion of Privacy.
My actual reaction was extremely normal and natural as we are human-beings and that’s how we deal with overwhelming situations that occur in our lives.
This explains why I just needed some time off and I’m not sorry at all for deciding to put my inner health and well-being before anything else in my life. As much as what you see on social media seems nice and envious, trust me at times, “reality will hit you so hard in the face and you’ll find out the virtual world we all live in is just an escape and the real reality.” (Quoting my dear follower, Perla Maalouf) and she was also right when she said “What we think is social media is actually unsocial”. And her words were stuck in my head.
I want to take the opportunity to also show my audience that just because we have K followers on our Instagram profiles, that won’t make us any less different than all of you. We don’t have perfect lives, we all go through ups and downs, we all have bad days, bad hair days, and days where we just want to stay in bed away from pictures, filters and good looks. Don’t be so taken by “perfect shots” all over Instagram thinking your lives are so ordinary, I promise that we all have ordinary lives and routine too, we sometimes find ways to make ours more exciting that’s all.
Tatiana x
I’ve recently come to a realization that prioritizing my own well-being is definitely the most generous gift I could offer myself.
As much as I love what I do, and am so grateful of everything going on, I feel sometimes overwhelmed by the pressure I can sometimes be put under. Especially that at times, I already have so much on my plate on a personal level just like all of you that I don’t feel capable of really keeping a high profile on my platforms. Furthermore, I personally think that social media is fun, everything related to it is fun, the power it has is impressive and the impact it can have, we can have on others is even more impressive. I like showing my audience some personal stuff from my daily life while keeping the most important stuff away from the spotlight because I’m the type of person who believes that in order to protect my bubble of joy, I should keep it low-key when it comes to social media. I have mixed feelings about oversharing my personal life on my platforms without judging anyone else who does that.
What led me today to be finally putting up this post is the reply of one of my followers who was replying to one of my stories about some Q&A I posted about; “A bad habit I have: To zone out from the world when I’m overwhelmed” saying “That’s a good habit! You always need time for yourself”… and she was right. But I always felt that the social pressure created by social media has led me to react in some negative way where I would want to disappear for days and be unreachable over What’s App and my phone. Some of you may tell me that it was my choice to have this type of life, and that’s true, but talking about its downsides is important and essential. I’ve been in the field for three years now and trust me it’s not just about the glitters and the good life you see online. Trust me, what you see is just a fraction of someone’s life.
The past month has been really tough for me, on a personal level, it was a time where I had to reevaluate some great decisions and really take a step back from personal stuff I had to deal with. I was on the verge of a breakdown and got really sick during the same time, it was unbearable. And trust me, during times like these, you certainly won’t be able to keep up with your Instagram account, or your blog or anything related to PR, or work, or even life as a whole. You just need some time off, from everything and everyone. And it’s okay.
In my case, I just decided to cut off any form of communication with everyone, I just tried to stay in touch with my closed ones who were aware of my personal matters. As for the rest, I’m really sorry for coming out as a rude person who would just keep her texts on What’s App unread for weeks. I want to highlight on the fact that What’s App can make communication a lot easier at work but I feel somehow that there should always be a sort of distance with people you work with, meaning that your professional relationship should be limited to phone calls and e-mails, using What’s app as substitute for these tools can turn into an invasion of Privacy.
My actual reaction was extremely normal and natural as we are human-beings and that’s how we deal with overwhelming situations that occur in our lives.
This explains why I just needed some time off and I’m not sorry at all for deciding to put my inner health and well-being before anything else in my life. As much as what you see on social media seems nice and envious, trust me at times, “reality will hit you so hard in the face and you’ll find out the virtual world we all live in is just an escape and the real reality.” (Quoting my dear follower, Perla Maalouf) and she was also right when she said “What we think is social media is actually unsocial”. And her words were stuck in my head.
I want to take the opportunity to also show my audience that just because we have K followers on our Instagram profiles, that won’t make us any less different than all of you. We don’t have perfect lives, we all go through ups and downs, we all have bad days, bad hair days, and days where we just want to stay in bed away from pictures, filters and good looks. Don’t be so taken by “perfect shots” all over Instagram thinking your lives are so ordinary, I promise that we all have ordinary lives and routine too, we sometimes find ways to make ours more exciting that’s all.
Tatiana x
