Summer break can be draining if you’re working. While some people are out traveling and exploring the world, the rest of us are stuck with summer classes or jobs. If you’re tired of skipping through your friends’ Instagram posts and wild Snapchat stories from Paris and London, here’s a quick guide to channel the powers of social media to prove to everyone that you’re having fun too (even if you really aren’t):

Take strategic Snapchat selfies

If it’s just your face, no one will know where you are or what you’re doing, making them assume that you’re out and about having a good time. If you want to add the allure of a bit of mystery, caption it something vague such as “ready for my first day!” Your friends can decide whether it’s day one of vacation, work, hiking, a week of napping or a summer of lying in bed scrolling through memes.

Filter the heck out of your food

A bit of good lighting and an Instagram filter can turn your Chinese takeout into a fancy dinner in seconds. Transform your soggy lo mein into a culinary masterpiece and leave your social media audience dreaming about fine dining.

Live-tweet your life with lots of exclamation points

Did you just get out of a boring meeting or are you “done with meetings for the day! #YAY”? Did you drag yourself out of bed to get a snack from the fridge or are you actually “enjoying a green smoothie!!! #summergoals #fitness”? If you sound excited about everything, people will assume that you’re actually having fun.

As a bonus, this will help you look at your day more positively and show you that it isn’t as bad as you thought. It’s a win-win. 

Add location tags

There’s nowhere you can’t be if you try hard enough. Is that one person you hated in high school traveling on the East Coast this summer? Don’t worry, you can do the same. Stroll out to your backyard, find a nice tree, strike a pose in front of it and take a photo. Congratulations, you’re now in Central Park, New York!

Instagram’s easy location tag feature means you can pick about any place that strikes your fancy for your posts. As long as you make it realistic, you can use any background you’d like to make it look like you traveled the world without really leaving your house.

Play around with live video

No one really uses live video much, so if you do, people will remember. You don’t have to be traveling to have fun, so pick a happy moment when you’re laughing with your friends and family to go live and show your friends that you’re having a good time.

Snap car journeys

If you don’t have an exciting destination, snap the journey. Whether you’re driving to the grocery store or to the airport, you’re still going somewhere rather than just being at home. Show people that you get out of the house sometimes!

Use Facebook to humblebrag

“I’ve been home all summer, but I still managed to have fun and hang out with my friends while actually being productive and getting all my work done. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that if I had chosen to travel like my friends did!”

Whether you’re at home, in school or out and about, it isn’t hard to make it look like you’re having fun. Everyone’s social media platforms are only what they want other people to see and really aren’t the whole picture. So stop rolling your eyes at friends’ photos from abroad — maybe their trip is more boring than your Netflix binge session and they’re putting in as much effort to make things look exciting as you are.