Your Social Media Feed Vs. Real Life

This week, Real Simple is aiming to add a dose of reality to Internet interactions. Deeming January 13th to 19th "Get Real on the Internet Week," the magazine's editors and writers are rallying against "faux-perfection on social media." While it's natural to want to put your best face forward — figuratively and literally — meticulously-curated social media worlds can stir up envy and unrealistic expectations. Is she really doing yoga again this week? Wait, didn't they just get back from Argentina? Is that a Prada clip casually clutching his DMV receipt?

Looking at "those edited, Instagram-filtered versions of lives ... it’s all too easy to forget that the posters are virtually ignoring the screaming toddler and the sink-full of dirty dishes," the Real Simple editors write. It's true, most of us don't photograph the boring details of our lives or post about all our rather mundane goings-on. This is probably a feature of social media, not a bug — can you imagine having to scroll past pictures of every ugly meal your friends made or reading status updates on their every move? There's a reason we curate our online images, and that's because most parts of most people's lives are really, really boring.

There's not a single person posting regularly to the Internet who's not pruning their image in some way. And that's fine. That's cool. The Internet thrives on the space between reality and illusion. In the spirit of Real Simple's invitation, I'm about to get real on the Internet (are you ready???). But I hope it stands as a reminder that there are also good reasons why we're less "real" online. (Need more? See #rsgetreal)

Exceedingly Average, Real Images From My Exceedingly Average, Real Day

This is what I was wearing until about noon (please note the unmade bed and preponderance of shoes lying about):

Here are my roots, which I dyed this afternoon after a three-month go at finding out what my natural hair color was (this photo would suggest reddish brown, but — despite the lack of filter! — that is really not correct):

Here is the coffee cup from yesterday morning and the wine glass from yesterday evening that I still haven't carried downstairs to the sink (also in view: bra, half-dirty sweater, scarf, rack of maple syrup):

Here is the gross-looking leftover salad I mostly didn't eat for lunch and the pot of macaroni-and-cheese that I mostly did:

Did you enjoy all that? I didn't think so.

Images courtesy of KimKardashian/Instagram; Elizabeth Nolan Brown