Perfect Illusion - Trapped in the Digital World

"Now, are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then we will begin."

Remember that episode of Doctor Who (back when the series was still watchable and David Tennant was the Doctor) when The Wire sucked off the faces of the residents through the television and trapped them within the screen leaving their bodies as lifeless and faceless beings? Well, I believe that the episode predicted the future of society but, rather than television, it is our phones that have sucked up every morsel of our lives, personality, and humanity.

We have become almost faceless and soulless beings in real life who can only exist or survive through a screen on social media, as if trapped by some external force. The big phenomenon is that the majority of us cannot seem to live our daily lives or do basic tasks without first consulting our phones. It seems to have been ingrained into our generation that Social Media and our phones are more important than real life and spending real moments with real people. We would rather post photographs to boost our vanity, 'follow' people and admire them as if they were our friends when in reality we will never meet them, or have a conversation with someone through pixels rather than really communicate with people and appreciate the world around us.

People who know me will be calling me a hypocrite because I am a big culprit of always being on my phone so I am in no way condemning people for using their phones and Social Media. I do believe that Social Media and the Internet are very useful and an integral part of our society but I think we need to learn how to use it sensibly so as not to shut out the real world in order to live completely in the digital world. When you prioritise your phone and digital self over your real self then you become trapped in a constant need to update, like, follow, and post. You will begin to miss out the special, real moments in life. Even something as simple as spending time with those closest to you can be ruined by the need to check what is happening elsewhere other than where you are.

Social Media brings obvious insecurities for people as we begin to think that someone else's life is more interesting than ours or the person next to us. But maybe if we just really talked a bit more to each other then the insecurities would fade a bit, or at least we won't be fooled by the illusion of Social Media anymore. People have the freedom to post whatever they want on the Internet and, because we are narcissistic, we tend to only post photos/updates that make our lives look far more perfect or exciting than they really are.

Lady Gaga's new single Perfect Illusion is very fitting for this subject. She has mentioned in several interviews that the song easily reflects the idea that our lives on Social Media are so fabricated and filtered that we all portray an illusion as to how our lives are. Communication is suffering as a result of this and this illusion is taking away what it really means to be alive.  Lady Gaga has said that we need to bare all if we want to truly live and feel the adrenaline of life - life without a filter. We are so caught up in portraying such a false/exaggerated image of ourselves or catching up with the latest 'goss' about the Kardashians that our real personal life is deteriorating as a result. Slowly but surely, we are becoming slaves to our phones.

Another thing that I frequently notice is that when I am walking somewhere, around 70% of people have their face glued to their phones (including me). People seem to want to distract themselves (perhaps numb themselves?) from the real world. We would rather scroll through Twitter than look at what is happening around us. As a result, we are missing the finer details of the world - the random events that can often brighten up our day. This is further enforced when we plug our earphones in so we become deaf to the world around us as well.

I do have a theory about being glued to your phone when out and about. Maybe this only applies to me or to about 10% of the 70% but I notice that I often look at my phone and pretend to be texting or scrolling etc. in order to avoid eye contact when walking past someone. I will usually do this when I am nervous or feel like the person walking towards me seems intimidating in any way. Maybe this is not the case at all for other people and may just be a case of some sort of social anxiety coming into effect here.

The most ironic thing about this post is that I have promoted it through Social Media and it is very likely that you are reading this on your mobile or on a screen, so I am inadvertently contributing to this 'glued to the screen' society. And after I press the 'publish' button, I will most likely go back to sitting on my phone or iPad and continue to do everything I have written about in this post. But that is probably the saddest thing about this subject. We are all probably very aware that we are becoming too addicted to Social Media and living with constant updates but we find it too hard to leave it behind because there is a massive fear of missing out on the next big update.

I do want to try and make a conscious effort to appreciate the real world around me more and live life for me rather than for everyone else through a screen. However, this is an extremely difficult thing to do when the world around me is so distracted by phones and the Internet. We are being sucked into a screen and becoming trapped in the digital world. The Wire has manifested itself in the form of Social Media and is feeding off of our narcissism, insecurities, and a need for more.