In the spirit of the themes of my recent posts, after seeing an article about how fake our ‘online lives’ are, it made me think about all the many times I was too busy trying to record an event rather than experience it in the moment. I mean, it’s great to be able to watch the videos and see the pictures afterwards, but when we are only seeing things through a screen, we are not fully present in the moment.

The life we present to the world is also often very different to the life we are living. The smiles, the blue skies, the gourmet meals – we present the snippets of our lives that seem idyllic, that make people envious, that make us appear to have the perfect existence, when in reality, that gorgeous selfie took 20 takes to look good, and that meal didn’t actually taste that great, but it looked good, and the next day, that sky turned grey, the rain lashed down and the wind was howling.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with presenting your best side to the world, as long as you don’t miss things because you’re too busy trying to record them for others. I’ve certainly been more aware recently, that instead of reaching for my phone to take a photo, I should just enjoy and experience the moment, and whatever it presents. After all, what matters most is that I was present with the people in that moment and enjoyed it fully, not that I have a cool photo and something to talk about afterwards on Facebook. It is difficult to strike a balance with this, especially seeing as I write a blog, and it’s well-known that in order to make something interesting, we need an image or a video to go in the blog post in order to catch people’s attention.

The other day, a baby deer wandered into the garden, calling out for his mum. At first I went out just to see, but then went and got my camera, because I was in the middle of writing my deer-themed newsletter and wanted a photo. But instead, I got the cutest video of him! But the whole time, I wasn’t looking at my phone, I was looking at the deer, and experiencing the moment (hence the dodgy framing and shaking) and it really was the sweetest moment.

How do you feel about your online life? Does it reflect your reality? Would love to hear from you!