Are You Famous? The Wicked Game of Like, Comment and Subscribe.

August, this is the time of year when the sky couldn't be more blue and clear when the ocean is in a deep aquamarine blue. As you scroll through Instagram, it's as if everyone has decided to quit their job all at once and go on an extended vacation in the Mediterranean. Those Beautiful, blue and white color combination pictures dominate social media for an entire summer. Ibiza, Mykonos, Morocco, repeat.

I mean, who are we kidding. Nobody has the luxury to live their lives like this except for Victoria's Secret models, Hollywood celebrities and probably a handful of bloggers and influencers. If you have felt depressed and sad looking at those aesthetic af summer vacation pics on Instagram or Pinterest because you are too busy working or stuck in summer school or you simply can't afford a plane ticket to Majorca, Darling, you are not alone.

I was inspired to write this post when scrolling through the much-loved photo sharing app that is Instagram. I wanted to talk about my blogging experience so far along with the potential power a simple image or an Instagram picture can affect how you feel about yourself.

One crucial thing I noticed from my brief blogging experience is that we bloggers are constantly looking for inspirations and new ideas to write our next blog post. Especially when you are a fashion/lifestyle/travel blogger, between writing about our latest outfits and our supposed "amazing" and "glamorous" daily lives, it has somehow become mandatory to ALWAYS have some killer pictures and gorgeous photographs on your blog and social media. It's almost like a competition, or an unwritten rule in the influencers' world, and if you don't have some attractive and aesthetic photos to post, you are never gonna make it as a big-time blogger.

One thing led to another and before you know it, you are way too deep in this game of popularity race of "like comment and subscribe". It's one thing to actually enjoy and love the art of photography, I mean sure, who doesn't like looking at beautiful pictures and aesthetic photos? However, if you feel obligated to post pictures for the purpose of getting a massive amount of likes and comments, you might have lost your real passion and your initial intention for blogging somewhere along your journey to "making it big".

But hey, before you jump to your conclusions, just let me make one thing crystal clear, who am I to judge, right? I confess, I myself have done it multiple times. Posting pictures and then getting anxious when I don't get "enough" likes and feedback, it's the same with blogging, us bloggers spend hours and sometimes even days pouring our heart out to write a good post. Of course, those Internet traffic and page views matter, because we are passionate about the things we write and discuss on our blogs and want to share them with the world.

Social media dominates the modern world. Everything we say and do is documented, every second and every minute. In a way, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Yet every now and then it's as if we live in a world where we no longer know what's real and what's not, and we can't distinguish what is more important: The cyber world of make-believe? or an actual person standing right beside you?  We care so much about the world online and not enough about the beautiful planet we physically live in. We try our best to always "look good" on our Instagram with selfies and travel photos; to post seemingly impeccable pictures on our blogs as if we live this amazing life that everyone wishes to have.

It's like a silent competition we all do.

Who are we trying to prove with all these updates and photos of ourselves?

Today's post is all about self-reflection. When I started this little blog of my own, I promised myself to be only honest and real here. I wanted to talk about fashion, lifestyle and all that pretty things, but I am not going to pretend to be someone I am not. I want to express the real me. I want to be somewhat of a voice that represents the majority of the young people out there nowadays, I would like nothing more but to talk about our lives and the struggle we go through every day, the challenges and difficulties we face at work, at home and in this modern society we all live in.

There are more than enough major fashion bloggers and fancy lifestyle or travel blogs out there. Although I aspire to maybe one day become like one of those successful influencers, I feel like don't need to be going on trips that I can't afford only to show the internet what an amazing life I have or feel forced to be constantly uploading "Instagram worthy" pics. Most importantly, neither do you. You are who you are, you are free to talk about whatever you want on your own social platform, you are allowed to create your own content without having to worry about if your works are not good enough or better than others. Just be yourself, and your readers/viewers/fans will surely support you for YOU.

                           xx, Marina.