Social Media- Chapter 1

Perceived Reality VS Reality.

We live in the times of social media.

• Either you're an overly active member who both post and looks all the time
• an active member who post sometimes & looks all the time
• a member who quietly observes constantly
• or an active lurker who's "too cool to get your own account"... 

One thing holds true, no matter what kind of member you are, you are involved. Willingly, unwillingly or even reluctantly. It's become a part of our every day lives, in order to be in the know of current trends, world news, local news or what your friends did last night, you have to be on social media.

BUT

one major thing lacking behind..the 140 character tweets...the 10 second snapchat...the image & caption on IG...or the status/image update on Facebook... Is that none ever tell a full story. We get small snippets into someones reality, one that is deciphered and interrupted like morse code by all those watching. Creating a whole new level of reality, a perceived reality that you sometimes forget you're creating. You forget that with every post or lack there of, people are piecing together a story of your reality. All while missing major details, all while only getting parts of the story you're telling.

At one point I thought, well that's OKAY. Perceived reality is just something they're creating, sucks for them...until slowly but surely Social Media has taken over & this perceived reality has become more important than actual reality. What you're putting out to the world to see now matters more because in most cases this is all they're getting, because now its the social norm, because now it effects emotions, because now it validates things.

• It validates status (even if you're a loser)
• validates friendships (even if you don't really like each other)
• validates relationships (even if he's cheating)
• validates beauty (even if you used 10 filters).... 

the list goes on & on... So even if you go to sleep every night crying, the smile on your selfie tells another story and that's the story people are paying attention to. Clearly no one post their every struggle....and they probably shouldn't, I don't REALLY want a play by play. BUT without the ups and downs, without the details, without straight forward statuses we'll never really know whats what. 

We'll only know this virtual perceived reality... the one that apparently matters most... or does it?

TO BE CONTINUED...

xoxo
-Signs the girl working on both realities