Have you ever browsed Facebook and wondered why everyone seems to be living such a fantastic life. They’re always happy, always doing something interesting and you can’t help but think to yourself: Why is my life so lame and boring.
It’s not that your life is lame and boring, and it’s certainly not that you’re unusually miserable compared to everyone else. It’s that people are living a fake life on social media. Why are people so fake on social media? For these reasons:
1. People want to craft a unique, cool image of themselves. The beauty of social media is that you craft the image of yourself you’ve always wanted.
You can embellish all the great things going on in your life while ignoring the not-so-great things.You can show the photos where you look cool and beautiful and make sure to untag yourself from any photos that aren’t so beautiful.We can do this because social media gives us complete control over what we want to show.
There are no random circumstances out of our control that test our true character like there are in real life.
There is no one to interact with face-to-face.Even messaging someone on social media gives you time to craft the perfect response.
2. Social media isn’t normal. Everybody wants to be popular, or at least, to be accepted by others.It certainly has never been normal for humans to seek approval from thousands or millions of people, but that’s exactly what is happening with social media.
While it’s normal to seek opinions from your close tribe or family, it’s not normal to seek approval and opinions from strangers in bulk.
And this can lead to some seriously odd consequences.When you hear stories about people risking their lives leaning out of train windows on an overpass for the perfect Instagram shot, you know things have become really bizarre.
People have become obsessed with seeking approval from millions of strangers, and this has led to, you guessed it, people creating an incredibly fake persona.
3. Materialistic people tend to love using social media. Doesn’t it seem like more superficial and materialistic people use social media?Materialistic people don’t have a genuine sense of identity and purpose. They just want to be popular.
They show off to others on social media by sharing their material possessions on social media. And this is why social media seems so fake because materialistic people with no depth tend to dominate what we see.
Despite its revolutionary promises, Facebook can turn our everyday lives into that wedding we have all heard about: the one where the bride chooses her prettiest friends, not her best friends, to be bridesmaids. It can feel like a popularity contest where being Liked is what matters, being the best is the only respectable option, how our partners look is more important than how they act, the race to get married is on, and we have to be clever all the time. It can be just another place, not to be, but to seem.
4. People are trying to live up to a fake image. We can blame social media and the media in general for this.We’re consuming more online media than ever, and we’re constantly seeing stereotypes in the media.
Inevitably, people think those personas are cool and relatable, so they try to live up to those stereotypes.They adopt the outer mannerisms, accents, style, and beliefs of a certain type of person they want to be, not realizing that this isn’t really them.
This doesn’t just play out in social media, but in real life as well.The difference is that it’s easier to spot when it comes across as fake in real life, but it’s much easier for someone to fake that persona on their social media profiles.
But the goals are the same, whether it’s in real life or on social media. They want to live up to the stereotype the media has drilled into their minds.
5. Social media has laser targeted ads. And this is also the case with advertising on social media. Social media has more ads than ever. That’s how these platforms make money.
Fake people are often the products of high-level social engineering and marketing that’s made them into a certain type of demographic almost without them realizing it.
When you fall into the kind of type that a marketing big brain created you to be at the end of a boardroom table you end up losing a part of yourself.
Without even realizing it in some cases, you start trimming parts of yourself and your interests, quirks, beliefs and dreams in order to fit what you think you’re supposed to be.
But the thing is you don’t have to buy that latest v-neck sweater, tank top, or flashy sportscar.And even if you do it’s only one part of who you are, not some kind of whole package. you have to fit into because some marketing firm thinks you do.
6. It’s now become possible to become famous on social media. Fame is a powerful drug. Everyone wants to be famous .And the trouble is, social media has become a legitimate way for someone to get famous.When you’re looking to get fame, clout or social popularity there are many lengths you will go to.
One reason so many people on social media these days seem faker than ever is that our celebrity obsessed culture has turned them into attention hawks with no appreciation for life or other people.
7. There is a lack of compassion on social media. Everybody is a stranger on the Internet. There is no real face to face connection.And when you can’t talk to someone face-to-face, you tend to lack compassion for them.
After all, they’re just an avatar on a screen. This is why people can be so rude on social media, and why people can look so fake on social media.
They don’t really care about anyone. There’s no authenticity, empathy, compassion, you know, genuine emotions that make us human.
8. Most people aren’t living an exciting life. Life is boring for a lot of people. You go to school, get a 9-5 job, start a family, but many people have a feeling that they’re not living an exciting life.
And seeing as though their own life is not exciting, to make themselves feel better they decide to fool everyone with an “amazing” and fun life on social media.
What better way to impress your friends from 20 years ago than by pretending you’re rich and you’ve made it on social media? As we’ve said above, it’s easy to fake a life on social media, so most people do it to get away from their own boring life and impress people they haven’t seen in years.
9. You don’t get rewarded on social media for sharing your vulnerable side. There really isn’t much reward for sharing with others how difficult your life is.In reality, social media is probably a dangerous place to share too much about yourself because people on the internet are mean.
They’re not talking to you face-to-face so they feel like they can judge you however they like without repercussions.0
Furthermore, sharing how miserable you are in real life is bound to turn off future employers.After all, browsing social media profiles seems to be part of the job process these days.
10. We all naturally compare ourselves to others. It’s almost human nature to compare ourselves to others. We all do it.And social media is the perfect place to outdo your competition.
All you have to do is show that you’re successful through fake status updates and fake photos.We do this to feel better about ourselves. If we’re living a life that other people envy, then we’re doing a pretty good job in our lives, right?
It’s all fake and it doesn’t mean anything, yet so many of us take social media seriously.In reality, it probably only gives us a small dopamine boost when we get lots of likes on our photos, but this small boost makes us do it again and again.
by: Lukayu