Perception

Per·cep·tion noun: a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. In my opinion, we live in a culture that has been consumed by this term. Whether you openly admit it or not you have at one point in time created an entire story in your head purely based off of social media images. Every time we hit “post” we are subconsciously giving our followers an imaginary pen to connect the imaginary dots. THOUGHT PROCESS 1: “Boys night looks fun, what a cute picture. HMMM…wait, her snap just showed that SHE is there too. I bet they are at the bar together. What a lying asshole!! THOUGHT PROCESS 2: “It’s 6:30AM and they both posted a picture of the sunrise?! HA. I cannot believe she spent the night with him.” THOUGHT PROCESS 3: “She posted another picture with a guy, God she is in love every 3 weeks” REALITY = That guy and girl happen to be in the same bar, yes. No, he did not lie to you and no he did not go home with her. The sun rises every morning and some people wake up to inhale its beauty; that does not mean they shared the same sheets. Oh and that girl that you think has a new boyfriend every 5 seconds, you couldn’t be more wrong. One of those pictures is actually with her brother and the other is her guy F-R-I-E-N-D. All that anxiety you created for yourself makes you feel dumb now, huh? I received a text the other day that said: “your Instagram looks like match.com” Uhhhhh. Well first of all, that’s LOL material because I have been single, AF (ß mom, don’t ask me what that means), for the last 294209 days. After I let out a ‘I can’t believe he just said that to me’ laugh I became slightly offended. Before I responded to the text I picked up the phone to call my brother who will always give it to me straight. “Hey buddy. So, I have a question … do my posts make it look like I am boy crazy or slutting it around town?” Cameron’s response: “Chelsea, yes. My suggestion is to never post a picture with you and a guy again until he is about to get down on one knee and propose to you. I have to go, love you” call = ended. I stood there staring at my phone thinking to myself well shit, I had no idea that was I was being perceived that way, I just thought it was a good picture and that my outfit was cute. Sorry?

When I told people that I was moving to the city of angels the very first question that I was asked was, “do you want to be an actress?” and the #1 comment I received was, “I bet you will get a boob job.” If those are not two of the most stereotypical comments based off of perception, I don’t know what is. Maybe I wanted to move to LA to eat fresh avocados and maybe I am happy with my bra size but thank you oh so very much for the support!?!

In a world based off of filters and latergrams, be careful what you allow your mind to perceive. Yes, a picture speaks a thousand words but before you jump to conclusions ask yourself if you are interpreting the right ones?