Social Media and the Illusion of Living

Social Media and the Illusion of Living

CURTAINS! 

I had a lovely August. It was the end of our school year and was half of the only two months of school break so I made the most out of it. I watched the NOPE movie at the theater –alone for the first time (I had the whole row for myself!)We had a family reunion and ate lots of delicious food, went out a lot because I enrolled in two short summer courses, and attended an extravagant night party at the end of the month. In between these, I rekindled my old love for drawing. Overall, it was an eventful August. Curtains close.

Curtains open, and September comes in. I reconnected with my classmates at the university and talked about uni stuff –online because we’re still in virtual classes. Minutes into the conversation, to my bewilderment, comments about me not leaving the house this last month spread across the forum. I blinked in bafflement, an imaginary “What?” sign in blinking neon lights was shown all over my face. 

Cut to the Curtains!

You see, in this day and age, the blanket of webs of interconnectivity called Social Media hovers over us all. In the age of quarantine, it’s what kept our society intact even when we’re miles apart. Lives were connected and shown even to the person you’ve just spoken to once in your life. It‘s what keeps us sane and tucks us in at night. And for this very reason, we can’t afford to stop sharing as that could mean you are not living –as the people around me seem to show.

It’s incredulous and slightly disturbing cause the last time that I caught COVID symptoms, a groupmate of mine asked on a phone call after I was missing in action “How are you the first one in your family to catch COVID when you never go out?” (all because I didn’t post that I went to a grocery store last time) –I don’t know Jane, maybe I’m adopted.

So I didn’t post stories of myself walking on the dark tunnel that leads to the main hall of the theater on Instagram, or share the courses I took on Facebook, nor do I backstab my cousin and post a thread about eating too much lumpia on Twitter. That doesn’t mean I don’t go out –doesn’t mean I don’t have a life. 

However I realized that this is society now, malevolent people don’t need to breach your privacy, you open your doors for them yourselves, and you let them in your life with no second thought at a tap on your cell phone screen.  With the rise of Carrds where you could write your entire personal information in aesthetic templates and YouTube where you could share your whole life from sunup to sundown, post your P.O. box address to get free gifts, exploit your child for content, etc. – this is the meaning of living now –sharing. Oh, that’s wrong– oversharing.

As a person who values privacy and alone time and cares not too much about other people’s comments and opinions, it’s grueling, especially if it’s becoming a requirement to show that you are actually living, I mean with jobs now Facebook is essential to show what type of person you are to the employers, cause simply saying “I’m not a pathological liar and everything I said was true” in an interview isn’t enough anymore. 

I get it, how else would they know? We've been under this pandemic for years, and the only way to get in touch and to see how others are doing is through social media. I mean, you can just share a hashtag on Facebook when a catastrophe happens to make sure your relatives and friends know you didn’t die of the recent earthquake, #ISurvivedtheQuake. However, I guess It’s just sad that because of this new way of living, the non-existence of daily stories on social media could eventually equate to others a non-existing life. 

On a side note, more and more technological innovations are being done for easier capture of criminals, predators, or missing people online, through CCTV cameras, tracker/navigation apps, etc. but there are pros and there are cons, unfortunately, one of the latter needs sacrifice, our privacy, and sadly some sacrifices them willingly. 

Thank you for reading! 

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