Through maintaining an online identity on social media for years, we get accustomed to living our life observable from every angle. The fact that all we do is being judged through a multifaceted tribune of our acquaintances, is not really a thing. We have accepted it and adopted this meta-awareness as integral to our everyday lives. But this “so-what”-factor, does not mean that the maintenance work becomes any less demanding. Surely, long before social media, we have done our uttermost to appear our best, for our own gain. But our profiles are more like the ultimate culmination, the lovechild, of our most wishful inner-projections and who we in fact are. It’s a long-standing project. All that we have not been able to fulfil about ourselves in reality, is given a place to play out in on social media.
But it’s not only how we would like to see ourselves, it is fundamentally how we would like to been seen through the eyes of others. In this way our everyday out-and-about on these platforms adopts a hyper-calculated character. Our actions, our likes, our postings and comments are ultimately always serving the goal of broadcasting our uniqueness. And… we filter! Oh how we filter! The instant something inconvenient and less-than-flattering pops up that is linked to our profiles, we instantly disconnect: untag, unlike, report! Much like maintaining a neat garden, we are constantly cutting things off. Through social media we end up leading an enterprise much more than we are living a life.
How is yours going? Let me know in the comments...