Living Life On Instagram

Social Media has become a large part of most people’s life. One of the most interesting social media sites is Instagram a site where can post pictures of everything from you daily life, to new experiences, your travel and even of events that affect your life.

Instgram gives friends and family that live live far away the opportunity to share our lives, allows people we have met online, but never met in person to learn more about us, allows advertisers to show their wares, and allows groups to promote those causes they feel passionate about.

Instagram has a huge affect on out lives providing us with information, entertainment, and a way to learn more about the world around us all through a series of pictures we can view whenever we want. It allows you to get a unique perspective on life in general as well as the lives of others.

However, we also need to keep in mind, that we can over share our lives allowing complete strangers to know things about us we might otherwise not choose to share with strangers. In addition, we sometimes forget that what we are seeing on our Instagram posts is not real life, but rather a small and sometimes distorted portion of life.

Like everything in life, Instagram has it’s advantages and disadvantages and here is a look at both.

Advantages of Making Instagram Part of Our Lives

There are some distinct advantages to making Instagram a part of our lives. Some of these Advantages are as follows:

• Sharing Important Moments With Loved Ones Far Away- With so many families living hundreds or thousands of miles apart, seeing them in person on a daily, weekly or even yearly basis is often impossible. Posting pictures of those important moments in life on Instagram (such as the birth of a first child) so that your loved one can share in that moment instantly helping them to feel like they are part of that big event.
• Instagram Introduces Us to New Things- By viewing various photos on Instagram we are often introduced to new things such as new food to try, places to travel and new stores to try. We can discover new hobbies to try and even get decorating tips for our homes and yards. In many ways Instragram can help to continue to educate us in an interesting and fun way.
• Makes Us More Aware of Social Issues- Instagram can make us more aware of social issues that we might otherwise not be aware of or take little notice of. Actually seeing the passion others feel regarding various social issues may make us want to learn more about those issues.

Cons Of Making Instagram Part of Our Lives

While there are some important benefits of making Instgram a part of our lives, there are also some drawbacks including the following:

• Can Reduce Ones Self-Image- By only seeing the happy times in other people’s lives or the beautiful parts of their homes you can easily get a false impression of what other people’s lives are like and may compare them to your own. When people do this they often end up feeling as though others are living more richer, fuller and more beautiful lives making you feel bad about yourself and your life. It is hard to remind ourselves that the people we see only through snapshots have the same problems and difficulties that we do.
• We May Spend More Time Viewing Life Rather Than Live It- Social media can be addicting and Instagram is no different. There is a very real danger that we may spend more time viewing the lives of others rather than living our own.

Instagram can be a positive influence in our lives as long as we use it to enhance the life we are already living and not as a substitute for living our life.