At one time it was easy to blame the media for selling us false images and pressurising us to be what they presented as the ideal. However, we are now our own worst enemies as social media has given us the key to present our ‘ideal’ selves to the world whilst hiding our flaws, as who would ever want to post a picture of themselves looking anything less than 10/10, or tweet about how bad their morning breath is? Yet this appropriation of social media sites which are now being used by us to falsify our lives to seem desirable, leaves us with no one to blame for this pressure to be perfect but ourselves.

According to Social Media London, of the 64.1 million UK population, there are 38million active social media accounts. That’s over half of the UK who are dedicating their time to updating the world on their lives – and according to the 400million of them who have Instagram accounts, none of them have ever had a bad hair day. Psychologist Dr Richard Sherry, commented on how “the dark side of this social conformity is when we deeply lose ourselves or negate what authentically and compassionately feels to be 'us'”. Not only this, but according to my friends it also leaves them “feeling inadequate” after seeing constant posts of other people’s picturesque lives.

These false representations of ourselves might make us look better to the outside world and may even give us a few moments of triumph as the likes build up on our latest ‘humble brag’ tweet – defined by Urban Dictionary as ‘subtly letting others know how fantastic your life is while undercutting it with a bit of self-effacing humor’ e.g. “Erghh just ate about 15 chocolate bars, gotta learn to control myself when flying first class or they'll cancel my modelling contract LOL”. But really we just end up feeling jealous of other peoples flawless looking lives and bitterly sending screenshots of their posts to our friends commenting on how much we hate this bitch who coincidentally got way more likes than we did.

“You end up with you seeming more like a uniformed robot rather than a fashion forward ‘It’ girl.”

Furthermore, our immaculate lives wouldn’t be half as fabulous without the constant trawl of the latest ‘It’ products, tv series or even vegetable being mentioned on our social media pages. So what if I just had the greasiest most calorific burger in history from Bob’s Greasy Processed Burger Factory, I’m still going to post a picture of this slightly revolting, mucus-like kale smoothie as that vegetable has a major ‘It’ status right now. We’ve all fallen victim to the formation of ‘It’ trends at some point, buying some Rihanna-esque distressed baggy jeans paired with an oversized jacket that we saw one of our fave followers rocking on Instagram, but ending up looking more like you’re paying homage to a homeless man rather than getting the chic androgynous look you were aiming for. This yearning to be part of a pack may seem like a good idea but ultimately tends to end up with you seeming more like a uniformed robot rather than a fashion forward ‘It’ girl and again doesn’t let you show your real self.

Every aspect of our lives is brightened, teeth whitened, sent to our 60 closest friends for their inspection and given a good few layers of filters before we let it anywhere near social media. One of my friends confided how she “once took a good two hours taking and editing the perfect selfie and then waited another few hours to upload it at the prime-like time” (which is apparently around 8:30 for any of you wondering). When I asked if that type of commitment was really worth it she replied that “bad selfies means no friends and no boyfriend which then means dying ugly and alone.” Which is obviously an extremely exaggerated view, but one that many social media users seem to have.

However, many people have recently been going against the conformity of presenting your ideal self on social media. Users on Instagram for example have been going through their old post captions and editing them to tell the truth. Model Essena O’Neill made a huge statement by starting off this trend. In spite of gaining thousands of followers through her falsely portrayed life, she ultimately thought being happy with herself the way she was and helping her followers to do the same was a far greater achievement.

Essana O'Neill Instagram

We’ve all become professional editors of our lives. We’d get top marks for seeming flawless but fail at being real. Life isn’t meant to be perfect, how could you ever enjoy the good times if you’ve never experienced the bad? Let your followers see you without make up, tweet that super embarrassing story about how you had one too many shots and ended up swinging from a column in the club like a pole dancer – make your followers want to be your friend, not envy you. Essentially, being happy isn’t about filters and likes it’s about being yourself.