Being Transparent With My Readers-Welcome To My Circus

Social Media Portrays Fake Lives

I don’t think it is a surprise to anyone that Social Media does not give an accurate representation of someone’s real life.

Everyone always show the best, most exciting, especially fabulous moments. Which I love.

It is very important to celebrate our victories and I don’t think there is one issue in posting about it and doing so.

It is just hard to remember that.. That those celebratory posts are just a small fraction of our friend’s lives.

Time to Squash the Misconceptions

This past Sunday the President of my Church, urged all of the youth (and anyone else who would like to!) to take a 7 day break from Social Media.

“Give yourself a 7 day break from fake!”, he proclaimed and it hit me hard. Since my work requires time on social media, I figured writing this post, being honest and RAW with everyone could be how I can make a small difference in the social media world.

The content I put out on my website, facebook and Instagram are what hundreds of thousands of people see of my life each and every month.

Because of the perfectly posed food pictures I post, I came to the realization that most people probably have a pretty picture of my life painted in their mind. My house (spoiler alert: I live in a run down 4-plex apartment!), my family, my day to day life etc.

I try to always be real in the text I write, especially over on Instagram. But today, I’d like to give you REAL LIFE.

I Present To You: Real Life

In-between all of the perfectly posed pictures is a lot of crazy. I have bad days, I am not even close to perfect. Frankly, I am usually bra-less and in my pajamas.

If you could actually hear the audio of the video’s I make, you’d hear a lot of music, kids playing (occasionally fighting) and I have to edit out a child’s hand or head in the middle of my video at least once every time.

Part of my job writing recipes and photographing food is to make it look appealing. What is going on around the pictures though is usually quite the circus.

I have young kids, they are at home with me all day every day. We bake, cook and recipe test together during the day which is sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating, always messy. ?

Toys are generally everywhere.

I don’t have a marble countertop (Maybe one day? I can dream, right?).

Lastly, I hear ALL the time ‘I want to come to your house for dinner! Whenever you post anything I just want to invite myself over for dinner!’

Most nights when dinner rolls around, I’ve been cooking, baking and cleaning all day. We usually end up eating reheated food  or we have scrambled eggs and toast.

Real Life vs Actual Photos

This is pretty much how most pictures are taken. On my coffee table with my $6 marble looking linoleum tiles from Home Depot.

Or on really cloudy days, my daughter’s changing table is the only place that gets enough light to take decent pictures.

 

Fun fact: The blender that is holding up that back tile still had some Oreo crumbs in it and it totally tipped over from the weight of the tile. Oreo crumbs were EVERYWHERE. ?

This is my super awesome, high tech video set up. ?

 

I hope that whoever reads this will remember that YOU are normal and so is everyone else regardless of the fun and awesome things they showcase on their social media.

No mater how perfect someone’s life seems, I assure you it is not.

I strive to be real, honest and raw with my reader I appreciate all of the support I have received from everyone this far in my blogging journey and can’t wait for the years to come! ?