Virtual vs Real Reality
My brothers and sisters….Making a logo for a shirt, does not make you a fashion designer. Taking pretty pictures of common sights with your phone doesn’t make you a photographer. Retweeting or going to every protest does not make you an activist in the same way that tweeting from the POTUS account doesn’t make your tweets accurate. Some will confuse my recognition of our diversity with attempts to discourage. However I am doing the complete opposite. I know we are needed in realms outside of fashion and entertainment and I really want people to ask themselves why they are doing what they are doing.
Do you truly want to be different? If so, how can this be true when you constantly accept the lesser version of yourself and ignore your blatant insecurities, opposed to resolving them?
Our generation is influenced and also allows itself to be defined by “what’s trending.” The blur between virtual reality and “real” reality on an individual and global scale has permeated America so much that it has even infected the presidency. There is a lack of originality that pollutes cyberspace daily – exemplified through the same jokes, clothes and ideologies, which then get manifested and perpetuated through social media. This lack of originality simplifies things people sacrifice and build their lives on, ultimately watering down the value of those fields, professions and people.
We are bombarded with consumerism and information everywhere, all day, and never given time to process its validity. International news, what a black woman should look like, relationship goals, life goals, sexuality definitions…things that cause real-life strife, are constantly being influenced online, with no realistic way to solve associated issues.
We are strategically being influenced to depend on social media – a generation defined by hashtags. Alternative facts or not, when we depend on social media for love, advice, acceptance, and direction we are not only further confusing sense of self-acceptance but making it harder to come together and truly make an impact.
What difference does it make if you can connect with people around the world but don’t even know your neighbor, classmate or co-workers’ names? What social movement can progress and manifest tangible change if it is based on a false sense of familiarity? How can we have relationships with our brothers and sisters if we have no relationship with ourselves? We live with filters, then wonder why the original picture never seems to be enough. The state of the mind reflects the state of life and being. The ability to recreate yourself and your personality online is substituting for bettering ourselves in real life.
While, social media is a great way to stay current in the news and may be necessary for some occupations, we must set aside time to comprehend what we are seeing and try to consciously analyze what we have seen and how it affects what we think and do.
Look at what you are spending your time on and how it is manifesting in your life. Challenge yourself to go without social media for a few days and document the time you spend on yourself. Document how your creativity can grow. I am constantly reminding myself that doing what everyone else is doing is taking the easy way out and selling myself short. If I must follow people, I am actively trying to decide to follow people who encourage me to invest in myself and be mindful of reality. “Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see” because everyone wants to follow each other, which begs even more questions.
