Let's get real for a second. Sometimes you see your ex on Instagram with a new significant other and you get sent into a spiral. Or maybe your friend from high school goes on a luxurious vacation every single weekend and you're stuck at home.
It can be soul crushing. From some slight FOMO (fear of missing out) to jealous rage style envy, social media can bring out a lot of emotions in us.
With all the negative energy caused by FOMO, blogger Chelsea Fagan decided to start the #TotalHonestyTuesday in an effort to make our "fake" social media persona be a little more real to who we actually are. People post financial struggles, body issues, personal disasters and even acne prone skin.
The #TotallyHonestTuesday movement is all about trying to lift the veil of the "perfect life" on Instagram while motivating each other to get back up after they fall.
Here are some of the brutally honest posts:
This issue of our picture perfect social media lives versus the not-so perfect reality is one that has been coming up a lot in the media lately; in some cases it manifests in a very tragic way.
The New York Post had a poignant article about a seemingly flawless mother of three, Kiersten Rickenbach, who died of an apparent drug overdose earlier this month. The first thing people had to say about Rickenbach is that she had the perfect life...on Facebook.
Photos of her lounging on vacation and smiling with her little kids were ever present on her social media. Many were shocked to hear the news of her death and the circumstances around her reported drug use, but all those shocked reactions were based on the fact that her photos on Facebook seemed to paint a much more positive picture of Rickenbach's life.
In another tragic case that happened two years ago, star college athlete Madison Holleran committed suicide. The strikingly gorgeous 19-year old had everything going for her and was just starting her education at one of the top universities in the country. Her struggles with depression and anxiety were nowhere to be found on her social media profiles.
In a profile called "Split Image" done by ESPN The Magazine, Holleran's mother said she once told her daughter that she looked happy in a photo and Madison replied that it was "just a picture." Her heartbreaking story reminds us that when you really think about, all those glamorous, happy Instagram posts that leave you envious or feeling unsatisfied with your own life are just that.
Instagram and Facebook are just pictures; ones we painstakingly pose for and perfect with cropping and filters. They are rarely snapshots into our worst moments.
These cases are extreme but they can serve as lessons that we all should care to remember: Instagram can make anyone's lives look fun, but every single person is struggling with something.
"Hopefully, in doing this, we can all feel a little less pressure to appear a certain way online, and remember that everyone around us is much more than just the highlight reel we normally see," Fagan wrote on her blog The Financial Diet about her hashtag campaign.
Be kind and honest, swallow your pride and post your struggle by using the #TotallyHonestTuesday.
Speaking of getting real, Gigi Hadid totally shut down body-shamers with her honest Instagram post: