Blogger Georgie Clarke has been working on a series to remind her 690K followers not to trust everything they see on social media, and she's doing one heck of a good job if you ask me.
Each post consists of two side-by-side pictures snapped just a minute apart. The same outfits, same makeup (or the lack of it), same everything. The only difference is the approach; the first one is taken consciously trying to make Clarke look as great as possible while the second looks like a casual shot someone would take to simply remember the moment.
Scrolling through, it becomes clear that all the flawless people we see on our feed that we are constantly measuring ourselves against aren't that perfect after all. They just remember to flex their muscles and suck in their stomach when they're in front of the lens while the one who is behind it knows how to find the best light and the most flattering angle.
More info: Instagram
Meet Georgie Clarke, a blogger from the UK who had been struggling with body image problems but has learned to accept and appreciate herself
Image credits: georgie.clarke
"It's no secret that in the past my mental health has affected my physical appearance and how I felt about myself," the blogger said in one of her posts. "When I used to mentally struggle, my body would be punished as a result. I didn't take care of myself and I was so critical of myself and how I looked."
"This was a vicious cycle I dealt with for years without ever getting help or addressing the root of the problems which were happening in my head."
One of the things that allowed her to do it was honesty, with herself and others
Image credits: georgie.clarke
"A few years later and some serious time dedicated to therapy, self-love, and lots of compassion towards myself, I am proud to say I am the happiest and healthiest I've ever felt and my relationship with my body is just as important as my relationship with my brain. And wow can you see the difference," she continued.
"When my mental health struggles now, I have [the] tools to take care of myself. It’s taken so long to learn these tools but with compassion and love for myself during these difficult times, I am able to recognize still how important it is to take care of myself or ask for help."
Clarke has been posting-side-by-side pictures to show that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to social media
"This is a reminder that just because someone appears to be smiling in a picture does not mean they're not battling their own issues"
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Interestingly, Georgie's series can make a bigger difference than one might originally believe. In 2019, Marika Tiggemann and Isabella Anderberg released a study called 'Social media is not real: The effect of 'Instagram vs reality' images on women's social comparison and body image.' The research revealed found that such pictures have the power to limit the negative impact social media has on our mental health.
As part of the study, a group of women were randomly assigned to view one of three sets of posts: the "Instagram vs reality" images, the 'ideal' side alone, or just the 'real' side. When women viewed either the real or comparison posts, researchers noticed that the identification or complete avoidance of the 'perfect' images prevented them from comparing themselves against impossible beauty standards, thus decreasing their dissatisfaction with their own bodies.
Image credits: georgie.clarke
"It's always the highlights we see from others when we end up comparing ourselves"
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Image credits: georgie.clarke
"But the truth behind those images is never revealed"
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Image credits: georgie.clarke
"We are all human and learning self-love is a hard yet rewarding journey"
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Image credits: georgie.clarke
Image credits: georgie.clarke
But sometimes it would be better to turn off Instagram altogether. Turns out, the more we use social media, the sadder we seem to be.
One study found that Facebook use was linked to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction—the more people used Facebook in a day, the more these two variables dropped off.
The authors suggested this might be because Facebook conjures up a perception of social isolation, in a way that other solitary activities don't. "On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling such needs by allowing people to instantly connect. Rather than enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive 'offline' social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults—it may undermine it," the researchers wrote.
Another study supports this thought. It discovered that social media use is, in fact, linked to greater feelings of social isolation. The team looked at how much people used 11 social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat, and Reddit, and correlated this with their "perceived social isolation." Unsurprisingly, it turned out that the more time people spent on these sites, the lonelier they felt.
Clarke's 690K followers have been loving the series
