Brief exploration of the contradictions between the real and projected life:
Humans at their core are social animals, irrespective of whether they are introverts/ extroverts, every human being craves and seeks out at least some form or amount of social interaction. These interactions could vary from teasing, bantering, fights to civil conversations.
Social Media platforms had been initially developed as a way to connect people irrespective of their physical proximity. It was meant to be a form of leisure, not necessity.
The ongoing Pandemic has forced people to maintain social distancing, cutting down on their daily dose of social interactions. As a result of this many people for the sake of their sanity and their desire for stimulating conversations and interactions have turned towards social media. What was initially a leisure has now become a necessity and a means for escapism.
I myself started using Tumblr because of the Pandemic. There was a dichotomy between what I wanted and what I needed. I needed to connect with like-minded people yet at the same time wished to maintain complete anonymity/privacy. Based out of this desire an online persona was created. This persona was like an alter ego of myself. She shares some of my interests, core values and viewpoints. However, she is also very different from me. As opposed to my real-world persona she doesn’t hesitate to strike conversations, is confident in herself and comes across as extremely curious. The proximity of like-minded people who understand and accept the aspects of myself that I choose to show, and the blanket of anonymity gives me confidence to say things online that I usually wouldn’t.
I believe that this happens to everyone. For some people their online versions might be their alter egos, for others they might be their polar opposites. Some persons might have been created for business purposes or act as a representation of what the user/ creator of said persona aspires to be. These personas are like a mask, that protects the user from the people on the other side. These masks keep on shifting, changing and reflecting the people around them, taking on the most desirable and widely accepted qualities and discarding the unnecessary ones. These personas may not even be of the same sex and the age as their user! Our social media personas are the ‘perfect’ version of ourselves, they don't have real life worries and are always happy. This was something that happened to me as well. My archetype was the ‘Sage’, yet the persona that I show on Tumblr is that of the ‘Jester’.
In reality no one is perfect. Perfection is an illusion that keeps us from being the best of
ourselves. The word itself is subjective, changing and varying in its meaning and importance from person to person, example for some people perfection is equal to having less weight while to others it is about being healthy both mentally and physically.
In real world, deception can only take you so far. One may be able to cover up the ‘undesirable’ aspects of themselves behind makeup and clothes, however the face to face conversations always let a part of their true personality shine through. In social media deception is what gains you followers and popularity. One is able to curate their conversations, instill a level of deception in it that might not have been possible in a close proximity conversation. In the real world we are much more considerate and careful of what we say and do, there are no such restraints in the online world. Social Media gives you a level of courage that would rarely be displayed in the real world.
All of this is for gaining acceptance. The happiness from being validated is euphoric to some, but does this happiness really count when the person being accepted is not the real you? Does it really matter if the people validating you are also not real?
