Scroll through Instagram and you’ll see a world where everyone is having the time of their lives. Sunsets, brunches, rooftop selfies. Every moment looks effortless, joyful, and perfect. But the uncomfortable truth is that most of those “candid” moments last about 1/100th of a second… just long enough for the shutter to close.

The other day, I watched a group of girls take photos for Instagram. They struck the poses. They tilted their heads. They gave each other the exaggerated, influencer-like smiles. Click. 

And then?
Instant switch.
The smiles disappeared, replaced by blank expressions and quiet scrolling. No conversation. No actual fun. Just checking the photos on their phones to see which one looked like the most fun.

That’s the world we live in now, where a tiny fraction of a second becomes “proof” of happiness.

Instagram has trained us to perform joy instead of experiencing it. To capture a moment before we actually live it. To value the perception of a life rather than the life itself.

Maybe the real problem isn’t the 1/100th of a second we show the world. Maybe it’s the 99.99% of life that we’re no longer paying attention to.