One of the great things about living in Texas is that I
have three complete families in the state. Two of them
are as close as Sugarland and the Woodlands and
one of them is in San Antonio, but she is not opposed
to driving down to visit us. However, the family in Sugarland
recently moved away and so, in the very recent
past, all four families met up at a restaurant to hang
out, enjoy the food and have one more bout of family
time before that family said their goodbyes.
So, while we were in the restaurant, my aunt pointed
out a girl to me. This girl was with another person
but her attention was not on that person. Instead, it
was on her phone. More specifically, on her phone’s
camera. How did I know this? Because—and this is
the reason my aunt pointed her out—she was taking
selfies. So after pointing her out, my aunt told me “this
is a really good topic—selfie culture.”
Here is my deal with selfies: I’ll send them to my
family and friends on Snapchat—my sister gets the
majority of these—but I’m not one to take a selfie
and post it on Instagram or Facebook or any of those
social media websites. But that doesn’t mean I think
there is anything wrong with it. If you want to take one
and share it, then go for it! But it’s just
not my thing.
And that got me wondering “why is it
not my thing?” Posting selfies is such
a common thing and, apart from the
trolls that come with any social media
website, most people are nice. Furthermore,
I’m not famous or a public
figure, so I wouldn’t get any trolls if I
chose to post a selfie. I think my thing
is I’m not fully comfortable with having
my face out there for people to see. I
mean, yeah, people see my face every
day, but having it on social media just
seems different to me. I don’t know.
It’s hard to explain. I’m fine with pictures
people take of me and I’m fine
with selfies where I’m with other peo ple,
but just me and my face…in the
words of one of my favorite actors “I
don’t wike it”. And yes, that says wike,
it’s a joke.
But this column
isn’t only about
me. It’s about so ciety.
And social
media. And our
need to make our lives on social
media seem a lot more glamorous
than they really are. I am a
culprit to this. I have deleted all
my pictures off my Instagram
and started my feed again three
times because “I wanted a new
aesthetic” (is what I told people
when they asked what happened
to all my pictures). My real life is
a hectic mess. I have so much
going on –see my other tidbits
for further details on everything
I have going on—so having organization
in one part of my life
was well appreciated. And then
I carried that over to Facebook
where I edited all my photos to fit
under one album so there wasn’t
clutter. Yeah. I’m fine with hav ing
my school books, school related
papers and random knickknacks
all around my
room, but I can’t deal
with a cluttered Facebook
page. In my real life I like to call myself
an organized mess. My room may not be
perfect but I know where everything is. Plus,
it’s a lot cleaner when I don’t have school,
because the majority of the stuff comes from
my class assignments and books and the
like.
Anyway, not only do people have this thing
about having a nice aesthetic or theme on
their social media, but they also like to post
the best pictures. And this is definitely not
me judging anyone. I mean I do this too, so
me judging would be hypocritical. It’s just
an observation. But, for example, I could
be having the worst day and I’ll post a nice
location picture from a holiday years ago
and add one of
those inspirational
quotes
as a caption. I
could be sitting on my couch in my pajamas, on my
eighth episode of Law and Order SVU, and post a
picture of me all glammed up for a family event. And I
know that people—mostly famous people and public
figures—will post often, but will also say somewhere
(like in replying to a comment or in a Q and A) that
social media doesn’t tell the whole story.
And that’s just it. Social media doesn’t tell the whole
story. Selfies don’t tell the whole story. People can
pick and choose what to post online. A happy post
does not mean a person is happy. And a sad post—
like a deep quote—does not necessarily mean a person
is sad. And even if a person posts a picture from
a location at a certain time, it does not mean they are
at that place. I mean I could go right now and post a
picture from London. That doesn’t mean I am there
right now.
So why is this attitude a thing? I think it’s because
we are a society that cares way too much about what
other people think. We feel we need to make our lives
look super exciting and interesting, when in reality
we all have the same lives. We wake up, go to our
daily requirements (work, school, etc.), come home,
be with our loved ones, go to sleep and do it again
the next day. It almost seems like we want approval
from others on social media, so we work so hard on
making our accounts meet this approval and making
sure every picture we post meets society’s approval
standards.
I never was the type of person who cared what people
thought about me, but even I think very carefully
about any picture I post, because once it’s posted, it’s
out there forever. Maybe one day I’ll get to the point
where I can just post a picture without a care in the
world.
Someday.
Picture Sources: Leverage Digital, Facebook, Pelfusion
