Instagram – I hate you and yet I can't get away from you

Imagine you are with this perfect guy. He looks amazing, is creative, versatile and it just never gets boring with him. At the same time, he kind of treats you badly. Tell yourself every day which problem areas you have, criticize the way you eat and make it clear to yourself that you earn far too little money. Would you stay with someone like that? No? That's how I feel with Instagram.

Why am I even looking at this?

I've been dependent on a social media platform for a few years. Have to check every day who is in his posts or stories on the South Seas beach, eats his super duper healthy chia seed breakfast bowl, celebrates himself because he has made the 10 kilometers in a new best time or with his children in a perfect family idyll in the camera smiles. I have the feeling that everyone always finds themselves: while doing yoga, clearing out, on a pilgrimage … always top-styled, of course (I would be happy if only a single T-shirt in my closet was ironed as smoothly as the faces of some influencers).

And while I scroll through it, this one thought keeps coming back to me: Why am I actually looking at this? To look out of the window in frustration because it's raining all the time in Hamburg? To put my Nutella toast aside with a guilty conscience and (despite the rain) to go for a jog? To think about whether I will become such a good and organized mother?

I can't get away from you, you poser!

The answer to that is always: I don't know, I hate you – Instagram! You rob me of time, criticize me passively, make me feel inferior and bad. Not that I eat an unhealthy diet, but: who besides full-time influencers has the time to make a breakfast bowl every morning from a billion fresh ingredients that you could use to compete in the Foodart World Cup? And which mother is not through with her nerves in the evening and still has the time to bake a lot of me-time and New York cheesecake? Do they really drink wine in the bathtub in the evening? And who has the money to go on vacation five times a year and take one "look how beautiful my dress looks in the sunset" photo after the next? Doesn't the food get cold when you first photograph everything from five different perspectives, put a filter on it and then post it in real time? I just have to ask myself: do influencers actually still see the world with their eyes or only through their ultra-megapixel smartphone cameras?

Instagram, I have so many questions for you – but all you say is: I do not care, slook at me how beautiful i am! And that's why I can't get away from you, you poser! Even if most of it is just a beautiful appearance – you come across as self-assured as if you were the measure of all things. You pull me under your spell. Because you're pretty, so colorful and lively. There is always something going on with you. Something is always happening and needs to be explored. Oh my god – was if i miss something?

There is hope in influencer heaven

Yes, thank God, there are: The accounts that give me comfort. Environmental bloggers who draw attention to grievances, health influencers who educate, encourage and offer help in certain diseases. Stars who show themselves bare and shaggy. Mommy bloggers with banana porridge in their hair while trying to tame their child at the breakfast table. Media spreading news and service tips, body positivity activists showing their curves and of course the "normal people". Those who do without the filter for a vacation snapshot. Who just want to leave a greeting for their friends – don't give a fuck if the sunset is a bit blurred. I would like to say to all of them: You are great! In all honesty: you are much more beautiful, more colorful and livelier than all the perfect, smoothly ironed supermen. There is a thousand times more going on with you. Because what you show is real. This is life.

What am i doing now?

Stand up to my "guy". Don't let him get away with everything and unfollow the accounts that frustrate me. I think life is most beautiful when it is without make-up. Help me out and make a really great guy out of my Instagram poser. Show me your rough edges. Your beautiful freckles, dents, bacon rolls, hairless hair. Show me the real mom life: How nice it is when your daughter says "Mom" for the first time, but also how exhausting it is when you only got 2 hours of sleep at night. Show me how you can just jog the 3 kilometer tour at a snail's pace. Or just lying on the sofa. Likes to eat super duper healthy chia seeds, but just let them plop down wildly and without concept on the yogurt (wow, I get goose bumps!).

Close Instagram our Platform. You don't have to be perfect, not always eat healthy, not exercise every day, not be a perfect mom. You don't have to go on vacation umpteen times or hike long pilgrimage routes. You wonder how to find yourself then? Just find yourself good! ❤️