Unfollow Me Right Quick

“You attract those type of people because of what you post on Instagram”

-A man I once dated who follows me on IG

Yes, a real man who I really used to date told me this in real life. Initially I felt played (New Orleans slang for feeling like someone has tried you) because social media is the only platform where you have control over what you present to the world and I scrutinize every single thing that I post. I try to pick the best picture out of the embarrassingly large number of them that I take just to pick one. I also pride myself on my captions to either reflect that I am a baddie or a momma or an educator or whatever else I’m feeling in the moment. I even try to only make post during a certain time of the day (after 5PM) to ensure to get a good amount of likes. I say all of this to say, I put too much time and effort into my IG for it to not scream that I am a well educated baddie. How can my IG not make you want to go back to college and go shopping at the same time?!

So is it true? Does your social media really attract different types of people based on what you post? I guess I have to side with my ex that it is true and if you put as much time as I do into social media posts than it is indeed a reflection of you. But I would also venture to say that social media is just a sneak peak into who you are and your most authentic self is the person you are in real life (because social media is really just an alternate reality). Think about it… if you only see the posts in my club dress than you might assume that I am a party girl but if you couple that post with an actual encounter then you’ll see that I am somewhat of a late 20s party girl but I am also a mother, an educator, and (if you really get me to talking) you’ll also find out that I love the Harlem Renaissance. So, can you tell my entire life from my social media posts? No, but it might definitely attract some questionable men with even more questionable intentions.