Welcome to another post in my The Low Down series, where I give you the low down on important stuff.

When social media first became a thing, it was a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. Over the years, it has developed so much that there are so many different functions and reasons to use social media. I work as a social media coordinator, so I find that I am always using it as I use it for business, but also in my free time.

Negativity in social media

As we know, as well as being a great marketing tool and a way to keep in touch with friends, or even stay up to date with your favourite celebrities, it can also be a toxic place.

It's so easy to let social media rule your life and compare your life to the perfect lives of others, or compare the way you look to the heavily edited Instagram pictures. We have all looked at pictures and thought I really wish I had their life, right? I get it so bad with travel photos or just any boujee photos in general, I'm like I wish I was doing that right now.

But we need to remember, people only tend to share their best moments on social media. It's so easy to take it as fact and think wow that person's life is so good - why isn't mine like that? The truth is, they are probably only sharing their highlights with you.

Tips for creators

If you are a creator, the best way to exude positivity in your posts is to sometimes be a bit negative - if that makes sense. The more real you are on your platform, the more people are going to relate to you. If you share real-life things that maybe aren't highlights, this will help remind your audience that social media creators are real people.

Related: Toxic positivity: the low down

My favourite creators on Instagram, are the ones who are just honest and real. Or, it's ones who use their platform to try and normalise things that the media usually tries to push out such as larger body types and disabilities.

Tips for social media users

For anyone using social media, even if you are just scrolling, you will need to take care of what you are doing. When you are mindlessly scrolling, you are not in control of what you are taking in. You may not think anything of it, but all that you are taking in while scrolling could subconsciously be damaging.

You need to set boundaries and remember that using social media is ok in moderation. Moderate what you are looking at and try to only look at things that make you happy.

Unfollow Unfollow Unfollow

If there are accounts that make you feel negative, even if they don't mean to, you are within your rights to unfollow these people. For example, if someone is posting positive highlights about their life and it starts making you feel bad about your own life, unfollow.

You don't owe these people, even if you know them personally, you are free to pick and choose who you follow to make using social media a positive experience for you.

Related: My journey to confidence: the low down

What measures do you put into place to ensure you have a better experience on social media?

Earlier this month, I went on a trip to St Ives in Cornwall with my boyfriend. It was a much-needed getaway and it was also my first time ever visiting Cornwall, definitely not my last as I had such a great time.

We went from Thursday - Sunday and driving from my house on the Wiltshire/Hampshire border took around 4 hours which was worth it for the pretty views and the amazing time we had.

Day 1

When we arrived, we had a few hours before check-in time at our B&B so we went down to the beach at Carbis Bay which was where we stayed. The B&B we stayed at was called Chy an Gwedhen and I couldn't recommend it enough. The hosts, Pete and Heidi, were so kind and the breakfast was great. We were so well looked after and I would definitely stay there again. 

The location of our B&B was great too, we usually got the bus down to St Ives as it was just a little too far to walk and taxis back. The taxis were only around £5 and it took around 5 minutes, so it was very handy.

Related: 3 Days in Suffolk

Carbis Bay beach was so pretty and tranquil, it made me feel like I was abroad. You can hire out water sports there too and it's a lot less busy than the St Ives beaches.

After checking in and getting ready, we went into St Ives. We actually took the train there which was only £1 but we realised there was a bus stop right by our B&B so it was a lot easier than getting to the train station.

Joe used to go to St Ives when he was younger so he could kind of remember the beaches but it was my first time and it looked amazing. I am getting holiday blues writing this, take me back!

We went to a pub called the Lifeboat Inn for dinner which was right on the harbour front, then we went to Tretho Lounge for cocktails.

Day 2

On the Friday we had booked a trip to St Michael's Mount. I'm annoyed I didn't get a good picture of the mount from the causeway but I got some from the views on top of the Mount.

We were able to walk across the causeway although when we parked, it was covered in water but by the time we'd walked there, it was clear. I couldn't get my head round it. I loved learning about the history of the mount and there are actually people who live on there today. We went into the castle and inside, was mostly loads of pictures of old white men, but the views from the top were so pretty!

Related: UK cities you need to visit

After St Michael's Mount, we went back into St Ives for dinner. This time, we went to an Italian Restaurant called Peppers which was really nice. Then we went for an ice cream, they have really nice ice cream parlours by the way, I wanted to try every flavour! This was then followed by an evening in a really cool rooftop bar which was an extension of The Sloop Inn pub along the harbour.

Day 3

The weather was meant to be best on the Saturday and we hadn't really planned any trips for then so we decided to have a beach day. For September, it was still so hot and I managed to get in the sea (with great struggle) and get sunburnt - always remember your SPF, or in my case, to make sure you put it EVERYWHERE.

For lunch, we had crab baguettes from a Cornish bakery of which there were many (I can't remember the name of it now but there were about 3 of these bakeries in St Ives). I did have a seagull mishap which I would like to try and forget about but luckily, it didn't steal my baguette. Lauren 1 Seagull 0. This was followed by more ice cream.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Firehouse bar and grill which was good too. We also went to the arcade and played air hockey and on the basketball hoops. Annoyingly, I started to feel a bit ill on our last night, probably because my immune system is just not as good due to being in lockdown for so long earlier in the year. As a result, we went back to the room early and watched TV.

Sunday was then driving home day and it did take a long time to get home, mainly because of all of the traffic by Stonehenge which is the bain of my life anyway but apart from that roads were pretty clear.

I definitely hope to go to St Ives again and other places in Cornwall, it was so fun. A highlight was that so many people took their dogs on holiday there so I got to see loads of cute furballs.

Related: Places you need to visit in Dorset

Have you been to Cornwall?

After waiting a year and three months to go due to the pandemic, I finally went to see 9 to 5 the musical and it definitely did not disappoint.

As the show was at The Mayflower in Southampton, we headed over by train and went to a few shops and had some food and drinks before going to the event.

For lunch, we went to Zizzi in West Quay and I had the chorizo carbonara, so nice would definitely recommend! The burrata salad starter was so nice too. I also had the passion fruitini cocktail.

The show started at 2pm so we walked over to The Mayflower after lunch and getting in was super easy there weren't really any queues. There were no empty seats though as so many people must have been waiting to go since 2020 like us.

I had seen 9 to 5 the movie with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin which I loved, but this was my first time seeing it as a musical on stage and it was amazing!

It was a really clever adaptation of the film and it was so funny too, at one point I think tears were coming out because I was laughing so much.

Related: Women don't owe you pretty book review

The characters were fab too. Franklin Hart Jr, the misogynistic CEO of the company is definitely more exaggerated in the musical than in the film which really helped to get the point across of how women have been treated in the office compared to how men have been treated.

I'd like to think the way women are treated in the workplace has improved since the 1980s but there are still some improvements that need to be made in certain workplaces I would say.

The three women main characters are so empowering and it's great to watch their journey and see a happy ending for each of them.

There was a great balance between comedy, and also keeping focused on the serious themes of misogyny throughout. Every so often, Franklin Hart Jr would make sexist jokes about women to one of his male coworkers, Bob. At the end of the show, Bob then hit him back with my favourite line: "What do you call a female CEO? A CEO."

I definitely need to see more musicals, I always love them! So far, I have only seen 9 to 5, Mamma Mia, The Rocky Horror Show and Shrek The Musical - all of which were so good.

Related: A-Z of date ideas

Are you a fan of musicals, which is your favourite?

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, I spent the Saturday and Sunday at Bournemouth 7s Festival. I had my ticket booked so long ago and was due to go in May 2020, so I felt like writing about my experience there.

If you have been following me for a while, you may remember that in lockdown last year, I tried recreating Bournemouth 7s Festival in my back garden.

Related: Throwing a festival lockdown party

Luckily I was able to stay at a friend's house so I didn't have to do any camping. I'm so glad, it was such a tiring weekend so I needed the proper sleep in a bed.

Day 1 

For day 1 my friends and I went out for breakfast so we could line our stomachs and started drinking pre-lunch time. No judgment here it was a big weekend! We had some more pre-drinks at the house before heading to the festival at around 2pm.

The queue for day 1 was pretty long as we had to show covid passes or test results, tickets, ID, and our bags all in different places.

When we arrived we tried out all of the different music tents and got the drinks in. The sponsored drink this year was White Claw, which I really think helped me out. Because it's a hard seltzer which is quite watery, it was so easy to drink all day and was quite hydrating. They were also not too strong so I didn't overdo it too early. Incidentally, water was £3 and these cans were £4!

The headlining act on day 1 was Ella Eyre. She was good but the main tent was so full and we were so far back that we couldn't really see that well and it was getting a bit crowded, so we ended up just going to an RnB tent which was so good.

Day 2

Again, we had a couple of drinks before leaving for 7s, some of us were more hungover than others (I am smug because it's usually me but I felt amazing - thank you White Claws). We left for 7s earlier and there was no queue as we all had wristbands by that point so got in a lot quicker.

We did actually watch about 5 minutes of rugby on Sunday, I know it's mainly for sports but I much prefer just dancing and listening to music to watching the sports (sorry!)

After that we did a bit of the Bingo Lingo which was good, my feet were killing from the day before and there was still so much walking be done so I was just grateful for sitting down really.

As for the rest of the day, it was pretty much the same as the day before, just going between tents and dancing listening to the different music.

We didn't end up seeing the headlining act, but I can't remember who it was anyway and the other tents had such good music anyway that it didn't really matter.

It feels quite weird now because that was the last event in Bournemouth that I'll probably go to for a while because I've finished uni there now. But I'm looking forward to more events in the future.

Have you been to any festivals this year?