Perfect, or just cropped that way?

 

Doesn't the pineapple I picked off my pizza
look better with a square frame!?

 Lately, I’ve become a little bit hooked on Instagram. I think there is something intrinsically addictive about it, and I’ve been thinking about why that might be.

Instagram is an app which allows users to take a photo using their smartphone and then apply filters and frames to it, before uploading it to the social network. Instagram encourages users to make their photos look better than real life, with a strong emphasis on making your photos look vintage, ‘indie’ or arty. Nowadays, there are extra apps you can use to make your Instagram photos look even better, with even more filters and stickers you can add.

Instagram is the ultimate ‘image’-manufacturing resource, which explains its popularity with ‘hipsters’. Urban Dictionary defines hipsters very aptly as ‘a subculture of men and women typically in their 20's and 30's that value independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, and witty banter’. Isn’t that just the most fitting definition! Instagram is, however, becoming incredibly popular with the rest of the population who don’t wear rolled-up skinny jeans or ironically chunky glasses. But what makes it so popular??

Instagram operates as far more than just a photo-sharing website, instead allowing users to communicate a precise, framed, filtered and edited version of their lives to their followers. In my media subject at uni at the moment (which actually inspired this post!) we have been discussing the concept of ‘mediation’, which is how the media operates as a mediator between creator and user. So, someone who takes a photo on Instagram is a creator, then the app itself allows the user to ‘mediate’ the image to make it look even better, then everyone else sees the image.

In a recent article in Relevant magazine, Shauna Niequist discussed the ‘envy effect’ that Instagram produces. People who follow others on Instagram see their edited photos, their perfectly framed slices of life, and immediately feel envious that they don’t have the same sort of life. I know I definitely feel this way sometimes!

It’s not like looking in a magazine, because the people you follow on Instagram may actually be people you know in real life. As silly as this all sounds, this can have real problems in relationships.  Niequist quotes a conversation she had in which a friend said “I stopped following a friend on Instagram, and now that I don’t see nonstop snapshots of her perfect life, I like her better.”

As I said, I really like Instagram. It is fun to frame your life perfectly and share all the pretty things in your world. But I do see the danger as well. Niequist also touches on how we use the internet for comparison rather than connecting, and urges us to change the ways in which we use apps such as Instagram.

I’m going to be trying to stop feeling envious of the perfect lives I see on Instagram. Obviously no one has a perfect life, and I (and all of us!) need to stop comparing, stop manufacturing, stop mediating and start living. 

I'm not saying quit Instagram, but take the time to think before you post: is this really my life? Throw in a dorky photo every so often! Take stupid selfies! Skip the extra editing! Make Instagram fun again.

The pros and cons of online shopping

The boots Liz bought last week from Styletread.com.au

The Internet can be a really dangerous place. Particularly for those of us with credit/debit cards… Ever since I turned 18 last year and got my first debit card, I have loved online shopping. It’s really easy, it doesn’t make you feel as guilty about spending as when you’re in an actual shop, and EVERYONE loves getting parcels!

Of course, for all the reasons that online shopping is fun, it’s also dangerous. When you’re not actually in a shop, parting with your hard-earned money suddenly becomes a lot easier, and you find yourself spending much more much more frequently. I ordered a bunch of stuff from Typo late last year (for uni! To be organised! I promise!) and it was free shipping over $50, so I bumped my order up to get the free shipping. Normally I would NEVER spend that much at once, but with my hand on the mouse it all felt a lot less real. Of course, when I checked my bank balance later that day, it felt real!

Another thing I’ve found is that if I buy something online, the purchase doesn’t go into my ‘brain-catalogue of shopping trips’, so the next time I go shopping I think to myself “wow Liz! You’ve been so good and not been out shopping for ages, you’ve been really responsible and saved well, so you can treat yourself today. A few new books, maybe a scarf and a lipstick…” and then I get home and I remember that last week I ordered a dress from Modcloth that’s going to be arriving in the mail sometime soon.

Of course, the final dangerous thing about online shopping is that what you get might not be what you expect. This is particularly important with clothes and shoes when you can’t try them on and check sizing or style, but even ordering a notebook or some sort of household trinket can be risky when you can’t touch or see the actual thing you’re buying.

I’ve been pretty lucky so far in my online purchases, but I did once buy a dress from Modcloth (which I generally love for online shopping!) that ended up being way too big. As this site is based in America, shipping it back for a refund would have been way too expensive, so my mum got the dress and I got a box full of disappointment.

So online shopping is dangerous financially, and it’s a risk, but as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s also brilliantly fun and a great way to save time if you need something, or if you’re stressed and need a little instant ‘retail therapy’ without leaving your bedroom (which I do not necessarily condone…).

If you’re going to enter the world of online shopping, I’ll recommend my two favourite sites:

Modcloth.com

American-based, as I mentioned, and a little pricey for tops and bottoms, but if you’re after gorgeous, indie dresses that hardly anyone else in the country will have, seriously check them out. Shipping is fairly reasonable, particularly if you buy a few items. I have bought two dresses, a skirt and a coat from Modcloth and I love them all. One of the dresses is my absolute favourite (it’s a ‘Too Much Fun’ dress on the site, if you’re interested!) and the bright-green coat is going to get a lot of use this winter. Returns and refunds are hard, but sometimes the risk is worth it. They also have up to 20 new items every day.

StyleTread.com.au

This is an Australian-based shoe-shopping site, and offers free shipping, returns and refunds, so you can basically treat it just like shoe shopping, but a slightly more drawn-out process. I have two pairs of shoes from StyleTread, I Love Billy gladiator sandals, which were $35 on sale, and brown Therapy ankle boots, which I bought last week for $59.95 (appropriately named given that they were a stress-induced splurge that I didn’t think all that much about!). Both pairs have fitted me perfectly so far, which is surprising considering I have tiny little size 5 feet, but I bought these shoes without much worry anyway, because of the returns policy.

So final words: Maybe you're safer not to get into online shopping, because let me tell you, it is SO easy to spend way more than you intended. But at the same time, it's a lot of fun. I'm still deciding myself, but I am thinking about giving my debit card to my parents to mind...

Why don't I blog more?

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Uni is crazy. It’s fun and exciting, but it’s also exhausting and sometimes scary and lonely, and it’s been taking up most of my brain space.

As a result, I have been somewhat neglecting my blogging… ok, a lot. I am frustrated with myself about this, partially because I really wanted to maintain an active online presence this year, but also because I really do love blogging!

However, I think there is another reason I have been neglecting this blog – I have been putting too much pressure on myself to write about serious or really mature things all the time. Sure, this is important, but I also love fun, girly things, like movies and music and makeup… and I think if I let myself write about those things a little more, I could actually have a much better, much more up-to-date blog.

So stay tuned for plenty more fun things, including interviews, reviews, more fun articles and, best of all, more content! Thanks for being patient with me!

A home for nerds

I am a confirmed nerd. The very name of my blog asserts that fact. And everyone knows that nerds LOVE the internet. They can connect with other nerds, create nerdy things and just be themselves. So out of all the websites, which is the best one for nerds?

Of course, I used nerds in the absolute COOLEST sense. I have simply observed many nerds finding homes on the internet, and have joined them.*
Well, in my opinion, the winner is Youtube. Tumblr might have nerdy elements, but it's so full of hipsters and quotes about romance to be truly nerdy. Facebook has everyone, plus all your non-nerdy friends can see when you do embarrasingly nerdy things. Twitter is too full of oversharing B-list celebrities. What does that leave? Well, MySpace... no I kid. No one cares about MySpace anymore.

Youtube! Youtube is the home of nerds. Before you protest, here are my reasons.

1. Tutorials. Yeah, beautiful people watch hair and makeup tutorials, sure, but they are NERDY people who can be bothered sitting through ten minutes to LEARN. Also, the hair and makeup is far outweighed by the 'How to be awesome', 'How to integrate an inverse trigonometric function' and 'How to solve a Rubik's cube'.
2. TV Shows. If you care that much about a TV show to want to either a) catch up on it online or b) get it sooner than everyone else in Australia, you are being an Internet nerd.
3. Things like this. This is Pride and Prejudice done in a video blog from the perspective of Lizzie Bennet. Absolutely brilliant, hilarious, and featuring the witty, incredulous line from Mr Darcy 'These people are enjoying popular music unironically!' Fantastic!

I could go on about the nerdy value of Youtube for many more points but my subscription box is calling.

*Nerdfighters! If you don't know what this means, shame on you. Now google it.