Everyone who has an Instagram account has seen those girls who travel around the world, eat only healthy food, wear fashionable clothes, and post Nietzsche and Kant quotes under their pictures taken on tropical islands. In these moments, we feel sad and even begrudge them because we’d like to live such a wonderful life too. But what if all the beauty is just an illusion and there’s a huge gap between reality and those magnificent shots?

Bright Side decided to find out what hides behind a beautiful Insta photo. It turns out that people’s lives aren’t just about traveling and bright emotions.

How filters work

Each day, thousands of Instagram users post photos trying to show themselves from their best angle. Thanks to cropping and various filters, their life looks interesting and incredibly bright.

Chompoo Baritone, a photographer from Bangkok, says that people’s will to look better than they are creates lots of funny and ironic, but honest shots. With the help of these shots she shows us what hides behind the perfect pictures that flood your feed and collect thousands of likes.

Users “filter” their reality and cut all the “inappropriate” things out to get that incredible photo.

These cropped images look really funny when you uncrop them. I think we can all admit that we create photos like this too sometimes .

The high price of Instagram popularity

You have to go out all the time and you have to constantly post cool, new photos. And it’s not that bad if you just don’t eat for a whole day to take a photo of your flat belly. Or if you have to skip eating out at a restaurant to save money, buy a brand name dress, and brag on Instagram.

But it’s not enough. People record videos while driving their car, take pics with wild animals, or climb the roofs of high-rise buildings just to get a good shot.

These photos look really amazing and make us hold our breath, but don’t forget that they’re very dangerous.

While trying to capture a great shot, people are ready to risk their health and even life. The story of Katarina Elle Zarutskie, a model from California, makes internet users think twice before doing something dangerous. She decided to amaze her followers and take a picture while swimming with nurse sharks.

Suddenly one of the sharks attacked the girl, bit her arm, and dragged her underwater. Fortunately, Katarina managed to break free and got out of the water. A cool shot turned into a long recovery process.

A girl created a fake photo and disclosed it.

Popular blogger Carolyn Stritch decided to prove that Instagram is full of lies. She created a beautiful story where she was going to go to Disneyland to celebrate her birthday in a castle.

Her photo collected thousands of likes and comments. A few days later, she revealed that it was just a prank.

Carolyn explained that she just wanted to show the difference between people’s online life and their real life. The truth is that most people spend their days in pajamas, with messy hair, sitting in front of a computer.

“We all want to see others’ bright life moments and show all best things that we have,” says Carolyn reminding us that reality is different and that’s why it’s very important to be honest with yourself.

Bonus: The biggest bridge in the world, Expectations vs Reality

In 2016, the longest glass bridge in the world was built in Zhangjiajie, China. It is situated in the national park at a height of 985 ft and has become so popular among locals and tourists, that the government has even had to close it several times.

There are many objects that look different in real life. Harrison Jacobs, Business Insider’s international correspondent, decided to visit the bridge and concluded that it was a traveler’s worst nightmare hidden behind marvelous photos.

From a distance, it looks like a masterpiece but there are crowds of screaming and arguing people trying to buy a ticket before you can even get in line.

People enter the bridge and take identical pictures: as if they were standing on air. It’s almost impossible to look down at the ground or enjoy the bridge because sitting and posing people are everywhere.

Tourists put on special shoe covers so they don’t damage the glass. But despite this, many panels are scratched.

Jacobs concluded that there was an extremely huge difference between beautiful Instagram and Facebook pictures and the reality of an ordinary tourist.

We all want to make our reality look a little better, but we need to remember that social media sites are created to help us communicate, not to be used to brag about everything.

Do you have an Instagram account? How many pictures do you post without using any filters? Have you ever taken risks to take the perfect photo?

Preview photo credit viki_odintcova / instagram