#nofilter

Sometimes, the truth hurts. 

It hurts so much that we'd rather pretend it wasn't the truth.

And guess where the best place to be untruthful is?

Ding, ding, ding!

That's right folks... the internet.

Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and photo-sharing services like Instagram and Flickr, we can literally pretend to be whoever, and whatever, we want to be.

Never were Shakespeare's words "All the world's a stage, and all of the men and women merely players," more true than they are today. Thanks to the internet (generally) and social media (specifically) all the world really is a stage - quite literally.

I first came across the hashtag #nofilter a few months ago. Being a bit of a social media neophyte, I obviously had no clue what it meant. The #nofilter tag is actually one of Instagram's most popular hashtags. It's used by "humblebragging" Instagram users to let their followers know they've posted a picture without using one of Instagram's built-in filters.

And guess what?

Ding, ding, ding!

11% of the time (which translates to over 8.6 million photos) it's a big, fat, lie.

A website dedicated to calling-out Instagram's #nofilter fakers, aptly called Filter Fakers, was recently developed so that people could check if a filter was used on a photo or not. Now, when you suspect one of your "friends" of being a filter faker you can use the Faker Catcher tool to uncover the truth.

  jack doesn't think you can handle the truth

I started thinking about filter fakers when I realized I was addicted to Instagram filters. Every time someone took a #nofilter picture of me, I'd be disappointed with it. The truth is, I looked like myself but had gotten so used to seeing myself through the forgiving, and filtering, lens of Instagram that I forgot what I actually looked like. 

I've never worn makeup because I made the conscious decision to look like myself a long, long time ago. Ditto for Photoshop. So why filters? 

I blame social media. Because of it, people's lives are becoming more aesthetic than authentic with every "like."

When I look at the news feeds of people who share every detail of their personal lives, from what they had for breakfast to what they look like in bed (#nofilter, of course!), I wonder: is that really your life or is it just a carefully curated illusion of the one you want your 2,700 Facebook friends to think you lead?

“Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Social media can be blamed for a lot of things, including but not limited to: narcissism, cyber bullying, slut shaming, neknominating and, sadly, worse.   

If you haven't heard of the hashtag #JadaPose consider yourself lucky.  

It refers to the position a 16-year-old rape victim named Jada was photographed in while unconscious. After the photos were posted online, social media users started posting pictures of themselves in the same position with the hashtag #JadaPose.

According to this article from The Guardian, "Jada's case didn't happen in a bubble. It happened in a world that teaches women and girls, from an ever younger age, that their entire worth and value is defined by their looks and sexual appeal to men. That they have to be sexy enough, but not too sexy. That even if they are abused, assaulted or raped, it is their "reputation," not that of their attackers, that will be destroyed."

In the end, I guess social media can't really be blamed for society's ills. Society, and the people that make it up, can.

PS. I realize that the fact that I'm about to post a link to this blog post on Facebook is highly ironic.   

  





 

The secret garden, part deux

Inspired by nature and unexpectedly left to my own devices, I recently made two recipes: vanilla cupcakes (care of Martha Stewart) and lobster risotto (care of IGA the SAQ).

I say inspired by nature because it seems as though the colours I recently captured in nature inspired me to make similarly-hued culinary delights.

Let me show you what I mean.

We had these beautiful pink buds, almost like cherry blossoms, adorn two trees in the backyard for about two weeks and I was so awed by their beauty (especially set against the bright blue sky and shining sun) that I had to Instagram them.

Subconsciously, I think the colours were painting a picture in my head because not long after I snapped these shots I looked up a long-forgotten Martha Stewart recipe for cupcakes and made them. 

This is how that looked.

In addition to being pretty to look at and easy to make they were also very tasty and I'd like to hone my cupcake-making skills to the point where I could attempt something like a red velvet or London fog.
Mmm. 

But on to the lobster risotto. Like cupcakes, I had never made risotto before. Every time I go to IGA and it's available I pick up Inspired, their free magazine, and usually get inspired by at least one recipe. It started with my new favourite appetizer - olive, basil, clementine and prosciutto (in that order) brochettes - and was quickly followed by another; bacon-topped pea and mint crostinis.

But hold on a sec.

In doing a little on the spot research, also known as rummaging through my recipes while I think about the next thing to write, I noticed that the lobster risotto recipe actually came from Cellier, the free SAQ magazine.

Hmm. I'm detecting another trend here.

I think what inspired me to make the risotto in the first place (other than the fact that I had leftover lobster... poor me!) was another picture I had recently taken of an almost phosphorescent, fern-like (???) plant in the garden.    

The recipe didn't call for them but I added peas and was left with a delicious, nutritious lobster risotto.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!









  

More pretty pictures

I made a (recent) commitment (to myself) to post everyday.

Cue applause. 

However... I've already spent a lot of time making changes to the blog today, search engine-wise. 

But I refuse to let myself down, so here you are... the latest installment of more pretty pictures.   

I recently took (most of) these via Instagram in Montreal and Ottawa. I really like the way the Amaro filter makes things look vintage. 

Most of my friends and family take pictures of people. I almost always do my best to make sure no one is in a shot. Another commitment I want to make (to myself) is to take more pictures of people.

And by people I don't mean randoms. I mean friends. And family. And my beau.

Because time marches on and I want to be able to look back one day, literally, and see how lucky I was.