We’ve all seen it, hashtags galore about how confident our friends are. In fact you may have even been guilty of doing this yourself. Have you ever posted a photo of yourself where the description stated something to the point of, “#confident, #flawless, #knowimcute?” Now do you reflect that behavior in real life? If not, why? Is it because you don’t fully believe it? Or are you nervous as to how you will be perceived in reality to have so much self-confidence?
There are a large group of us that do act more confident on social media than in real life. If you’re wondering why, there could be a lot of reasons for this. A big reason is due to the fact that we are able to hide behind our phones and computer screens and put whatever perceived persona we want. You don’t have anyone there right next to you to question how honest you are being with yourself. It’s definitely harder to be confident in real life, when you have all eyes on you.
To be fair, reality can and often is too complicated to be summed up in 140 characters or in a selfie photo. So majority of the time, you may be confident in reality, but you yourself will not post your rough experiences for everyone to see on social media. Many people want to have an image and perceived notion that they are fully confident all the time and will only post what they want to post. So it’s safe to say that your friends aren’t as confident as you think they are. In fact, they probably fight the same confidence battles as you do. This is why you can’t always believe what you see on the internet. Your friend who may seem to have her life completely together may only seem that way because that’s the only aspect she allows you and the rest of social media to see. So if you think about it, we are all frauds and imposters to a certain degree, because we have the ability to leave what we want out.
Regardless of your reasons, you should perhaps take some advice from your own social media persona. If you look at that person, think about what you like about her and internalize it. You can’t be confident if you do not believe in yourself. It’s not an easy task to be secure and confident all the time, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to be as much as possible. Being self-assured in real life can and is a lot more fun than being self-assured on social media.
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You have the confidence somewhere in you because it takes guts to post these types of posts anyway. You believe in yourself enough to believe that you are the person in the photo. So why not fully embrace it? Don’t save this girl for social media, share it with the world. This can present so many eye-opening and wonderful life experiences you may never be able to find on the internet.
