Just a few words on how things might not be quite as wonderful for others as they may appear, in our regular mental health and wellbeing column.
Hello again, and a very warm welcome to our little spot on the site where we talk about mental health and wellbeing. It’s a place where we chat about things that may be affecting you, us, or people around us. Our rules are that no miracle cures are offered, that not every article we run is going to be of use to everyone, but hopefully across this series, there’s something that’s of use to you.
This week, a few words on lives that may appear to be more exciting than our own.
A few weeks ago, I went to see a new film. Nothing radical there, save for I seemed to have ended up in an influencer’s screening of the movie. Now there aren’t many areas where my life intersects with that of influencers, nor vice versa. Still, I’m a parent, I see the power that social media stars can have, and the responsibility that comes with.
I also see the aspirational nature of what they do. Heck, if you can create your own material and make a living from it, all power to you. Not for nothing do many youngsters in particular aspire to become influencers, but the small glimpse I got into that world was enough to send me running in the other direction.
I saw people not able to watch the film they’d gone along to see, instead looking for the right angle to take shots from. I heard a collection of them heading off to regroup to shoot reaction footage at the fast food emporium around the corner. I saw the race to get material live first, to have the right hashtags, to get it all perfect. And it didn’t look fun in the slightest.
I think that’s the same of lots of things that might look appealing from the outside, but when you get to see some of it close up, the sheen soon comes off. I’m sure there are some professions and lifestyles that are an improvement on our own, and I’m not naïve in the slightest about that.
But it’s odd how things we sometimes aspire to be aren’t quite as wonderful as we might feel they are. The other side of the fence might not be as attractive as we think.
The flipside of this is that oftentimes, a fear of this keeps us rooted in jobs, for example. That leap into the unknown. There’s always a balance, but I do think that the stuff that looks too good to be true has a habit of being just that. That the lives we may be the most jealous of are maybe not quite so perfect after all.
You all take care and look after yourselves, and I hope life is treating you half-decently at least. We’ll be back with this feature next Wednesday.
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