A bit shit

It's okay to be a little bit shit. Let's just say that outright here on the first line. It is perfectly okay and sometimes amazing to be a little bit shit.

Let me ask myself a few questions here. Why does it matter if the next photo in my stream is a certain colour? Why does it matter if I want to read the latest Katie Price novel over Dickens? Why and who does this really matter to?

When you actually think about how Instagram works, we focus on uploading the perfect image. Where the delicately placed flowers are 2cm away from the bright and bold book cover and the shining Parker pen sits gently placed beside it. But it doesn't end there. Then we edit. We brighten, contrast, structure, colour and redefine the original moment to fit a certain theme or idea that we've set for yourself. And even then, we still aren't done. We hashtag, add tags and tag our location, adding these pieces of information to help people find this fictitious moment that quite frankly is a blurred perception of a fake reality.

I'll bet you've never even opened the bloody book!

It's okay to be a bit shit. It's okay to buy a book, open it and enjoy it. Or not enjoy it and put it on a bookshelf to gather dust. It's okay to buy a trashy novel and bloody love it. We don't all read Keats or Jane Austen unless suffering through it in our English lessons at school. And we don't have to perfectly colour our lives in order to gain a few likes on our social media channels.

But it's not just that. It's also okay to enjoy a night in at home in your food stained PJ's with a big old glass of wine that you've topped up way past the recommend mark. You don't have to have to fall into the trap of only having a 'perfect night in' if you complete a 'perfect' set of ideals. Oh you must have the new mud clay face mask in a skimpy satin number from some expensive shop you can't pronounce. No! Let me enjoy my wine and dirty clothes in peace. Let's redefine what 'perfect' is and make it simply 'perfect' for us. Not anyone else. Only you.

We have reached a point in our generation where, for the vast majority, there is a quiet suffering under the weight of our own perfectionism. We all want that extra special moment. We all want to showcase a glittering, shining example of our very "not perfect but GOD I'm trying to be" lives.

In doing so we lose ourselves. We lose the sense of self appreciation, one that doesn't come from hitting double figures on Instagram, and our own value in things that haven't come from the online world.

Read the trashy novel. Watch the Kardashians. Mix up your food in your boring brown bowl and fucking eat it. Love it! It's okay to be a bit shit and enjoy shit things so go on, do it.

This post was inspired by Black Mirror: Nosedive which I recently watched on Netflix. This post is not sponsored, endorsed or affiliated. All views are my own.