Finding contentment in the digital age 

How can we ever feel content with what we have when the next best thing is constantly being shoved in our faces?

You’re finally on that trip to Bali that you’ve been dreaming about. You’re happy, thrilled to be going on adventures and decide to hop on Instagram to post all the aesthetic pictures of the food you’ve eaten and places you’ve visited. Then you see someone post about their trip to Sicily and you can’t help but find their trip way cooler than yours. So now you’re spending the rest of your holiday dreaming of a trip to a different location instead.  

Have you ever felt that way? It doesn’t have to be about a holiday per se, it can be anything really from the latest clothes to the newest gadgets and gizmos and even jobs. I know I have. I remember back in 2015-ish, LA was the place that everybody wanted to go because that was where all the youtubers and social media personalities were living and now NYC is that place so everyone’s flocking the big apple. 

The thing is, with rapid developments in technology and the internet, our lives have become so interconnected and webbed (haha get it?) that it’s impossible not to know what others are getting up to. While that’s a good thing in some aspects, it has also facilitated mass consumption and bred a feeling or attitude of constantly wanting something else. Especially when social media tends to spotlight creators and content which promotes a certain lifestyle filled with grandeur that not all of us can afford. It leaves me wishing I had a life like theirs so you end up living in your own head instead. I’m not saying we shouldn’t strive to dream big, but we shouldn’t disregard what we have in the process either, right?

It's getting tougher and tougher to do that though when we’re always being told what’s in and what’s out. It moves at a rapid pace too, these trends, that by the time you finally get what you were longing for, something better comes along, and the cycle continues. I’m no exception to this, I’m afraid. I know every time I watch one of those Vogue celebrity house tour videos or a day in the life vlog, a little part of me longs to be in their shoes. I conjure up scenarios in my head where I’m a private chef in Rhode Island living in a house like Troye Sivan’s or a botanist with a cottage in London or something along those lines. Then I feel guilty for this moment of ungratefulness. 

So how can we start to feel truly content with ourselves? I don’t want to move through life constantly waiting for something else to happen. I want to be present and experience every bit of this life I’m living so that I don't look back and regret that I wasn't living in the moment more.