Fragments of Reality

It is so easy to blame Social Media for everything. Loneliness? Egotism? Violence? Depression? You can blame all of them on social media. But actually social media itself cannot be blamed for anything because it is the way we use it that is to blame. We (as humanity) have created a technology that enables us to connect to each other from long distances and share our experiences with other people. We are more than ever able to spread light in this world because of the internet. And therefore, we share all of our happiness, joy and positive experiences. But for some reason, this is exactly what leads to people getting depressed. Why is it that we get sad, when we see the beautiful, perfect lives of others displayed on the internet? I think that it is due to a lack of empathy on the internet. When I share a picture on one of the various platforms I use, I do not think “I hope people will become happy when they see this”. I have to admit that my thoughts are more like “I hope people will like my picture” or “I hope people think I am adventurous/ a good photographer/happy, etc.”. Maybe even this post is me faking humility to get more attention. We share our joy on the internet, but we do not share it with the people, we share it with the masses. We do not share, we publish, and it is hard for some people to see the difference between those two things. I do not share my life on Instagram or other platforms. I publish my work. And when I see accounts filled with beautiful pictures of a person travelling around the world, I need to understand that difference. This person may show pictures of white beaches and beautiful mountains on a regular basis, but that does not mean that they are “living the life of your dreams” or living “the perfect life”. Maybe they work six days a week and then they have time to take pictures one day. Maybe they decided to travel because their life at home was terrible. The fact is that we always choose what we want to show to others on the internet. We choose to share the things we like, and ignore all the downsides, all the nasty things in life. No matter how hard we try we always provide people with an illusion of our lives. Because the real me or the real you can only be found in reality.  That is why we need to use an inner lens when we use the internet. We have to view content as fragments of a real life, but not a reality itself.