Wazzup Pilipinas!
How many times have you seen yourself taking a shot of that almost perfect and seemingly happiest moment in your life? That is understandable. We want to keep the memories and immortalize it in pictures so that it will last our lifetime.
With the latest advancement in technology, it is now also possible to share the moment with our friends and acquaintances. We can now share to the whole world our success, our accomplishment, our celebration, our new car, our new home, our first born.....and everything else we think that would highlight our life as exponentially at the top! One click from our camera-equipped phone, a link to a wi-fi connection, and its now on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or any, if not all, of the several social media networks.
But how many times have you been tempted to look and crave for equally significant shots so that you could post them on your social media accounts as your status update for the day, or maybe for the hour, at that very moment after seeing your friends' own status updates?
Hey, I see a friend is on a flight to Malaysia to see the Petronas Towers, I see another one dining in one of the new restaurants in BGC, and there's another one playing with a new iPad mini, ...Oh, look! their surfing the waves of Siargao Island! Damn! My friend is doing all kinds of selfies with her new Jaguar!
I bet you were tempted in posting your own selfies - photos depicting you at a state that's equally captivating and......envious.
Well, you wouldn't be feeling like that if you got invited to join them.
So, you'll just post your own set of pictures and show off. You'll flaunt your own stuff, your own gimmicks, your own "tech toys", your meal for the day, your rubbing shoulders with a celebrity ... and everything else you find luxurious and fascinating.
It is very rare that you'll see yourself posting photos about the "downs" and struggles in your life. You want the whole world to see that you are having the best time in your life.
This makes social media somewhat like a reality show. I doubt these people in reality shows would show their true colors. Neither will you.
Our life in social media is nothing more than just a reality show filled with partial truths and unrealistic exaggerations.
Have you noticed that we normally check our social media accounts only during the times when we have nothing to do. With the exception of course of those people that are glued on their computer monitor, or have their phones setup to provide them with the latest updates.
We rarely check our social media accounts when were having our own peak experiences, and only find the time to browse through it when we are bored and alone.
Sometimes it makes you feel like a loser when you see your friends flaunt endlessly in their social media accounts.
It all boils down to our attitude. Do not fall prey to the seduction of other people’s carefully-curated or heavily filtered photos. You should refuse to see social media as a full reflection of what goes on in everyone's life.
We should use social media instead to connect with people, build a community, establish a relationship...and though it may be difficult to totally appreciate the great things that happen to our friends without feeling a little envious, but just remember that the very best things in life couldn’t really be captured in status updates. It could only be felt within ourselves among the company of our real friends outside the "unreal" reality show we call social media.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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