Disclaimer: this post contains content which some may find offensive, but which nonetheless holds truth.
Sky shattering conversations on our human condition are the ones I´m down for. Gimme conspiracy theories and existential crises any day of the week - here´s an existential convo I´ve been mulling over for a while now, I hope it speaks to you on some level.
I´m sure you must´ve heard the story of Narcissus, who was so self-obsessed and fixated on his own beauty, he would spend hours staring at his own reflection in a stream. One day Narcissus fell in and drowned and right in the spot where he would sit in self-obsession, there grew a beautiful flower, which is named after him. I guess Narcissus is like so many of us and his sad tale speaks to and echoes our human condition on so many levels.
I´m not sure if its just the way of the world or social media, although I blame social media and the internet for most of what´s wrong with the world today, but we´ve all become so self-obsessed. We are the generation of the ´I´....the me, me, me. The selfie kids with our narcissistic images we spew for the simple sake of a couple of likes and a quick high to get us through the week. We crave affirmation from our social media, comments where we´re told just how ¨gorgeous¨ we are. When did complementing one´s appearance become all we crave. When did it change that a complement about your personality and character were less valuable than a flame emoji commented on our latest selfie. We delete the parts of our profiles that don´t fit the persona we wish to project, our self-made image.
I remember when I was a kid, I would play outside, *in the fresh air,* with not a care in the world. I remember being barefoot and young, and my favourite pose for images was a too big smile that stretched the tendons in my neck and made me look like some kind of little lizard. I grew up with wild curls and a face with no makeup and no cares. I grew up with cartoons and Disney Channel on a Saturday morning with a bowl of Coco Pops. I had a great childhood, which is why I pity the kids of today who grow up in a world where much of that is lost or watered down and replaced by technology. Today, instead of trying to be like Hannah Montana, kids aim to dress and be like the Jenners´ or the Kardashians´ , pouting their way around with their Appple iPhones and social media accounts with a couple hundred followers. I pity the kids who grow up in a world where social media and your number of followers are seen as an indicator of your worth.
I recently made my Instagram profile into a personal blog in order to increase my blog following and social media presence to tie alongside that. I must say that trying to increase your social media following can be like a job of its own. I find myself checking my insights section constantly, seeing when my audience will be most engaged on a certain day of week, therefore planning when I post based around how many people will be online, which will ultimately increase my number of likes...phew that was a mouthful as much as it is a brain crunch to need to take into consideration with every single post. And I started to think, once again, about why we are so damn obsessed with likes and follows, like that shit does NOT define you! We all try to be these strong people who don´t care what others think, yet are shaken by even the slightest bad word put up against us.
So, I hope that as you read this, you remember today and tomorrow and the next day, that your worth is not determined by the platforms we call social media. Self-obesession breeds insecurity. Your worth is determined by the kind works you do on the daily, the person you are on the inside, your dreams and all your fears, your flaws and all your quirks. Your worth is not the number of likes you get or the number of followers you can boast, you determine your own worth. YOU. Full stop. Stop giving social media the power it never should´ve had, take back your power and alter your perception. Post because you want to post and let it be a reflection of you, not the you you´re trying to project to the world through a false lens. Be you, because everyone else is already filtered.
Jess x
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