If We Instagrammed Our Real Lives, Here's What It Would Really Look Like

Impact

2015 might become known as the year that people "came out" on Instagram: Some of the most well-known bloggers finally admitted that the lives they lead on the app aren't actually representative of their day-to-day experiences.

What? You mean these women don't wear stilettos and eat pastel macarons with perfectly matching pastel manicures every single day? OK, so you might have seen this one coming — in part because, macarons or not, most of us present prettier lives on Instagram than the ones we actually live.

But research on Facebook and other sites has already confirmed that social media gives us false perceptions of others' lives. Instagram, with its emphasis on photos, heightens our focus on other people even more.

"You get more explicit and implicit cues of people being happy, rich, and successful from a photo than from a status update," Hanna Krasnova of Humboldt University Berlin and co-author of a 2013 study on Facebook and envy, told Slate.

With all the filtering, cropping and clever captioning, it's no wonder we get seduced by what's essentially fantasy. But the bubble is bursting, as more and more people deciding to get real on the app, or at least honest about what they present. Because let's be real: If our style on Instagram really reflected what we wore and did in real life, this is what it would be like. 

Here's to a more honest 2016.

If we really showed off our nail game:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we snapped those flowers for real:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we showed off our real footwear:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we took real photos of our vacations:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we didn't prearrange our purses:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we celebrated our honest drink choices:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we showed our desserts as they're really eaten:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we snapped our actual #OOTDs:

Instagram/Getty Images

If we 'grammed the most important meals of our days:

Instagram/Getty Images

Yeah, 2016 could stand to be a whole lot more honest.