Taking on the Social Paparazzi
I’ve been obsessed with the 1980s lately: the music, films, television shows, beauty, fashion, advertisements, and pop culture icons that embodied the decade’s unforgettable creative expression (…she says as Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough plays in the background and hubby rolls his eyes at having to listen to this 80s classic for the 10th time in a row).
A part of me can’t help but lament the loss of this unbridled enthusiasm and outrageousness, which seems to have gone the way of shoulder pads and teased hair; though surely nobody would mind the disappearance of the latter.
A modern-day creative funnel
Instead, our creative energy today is channeled into self-imposed aspirational perfectionism: the airbrushed smooth skin and digitally-sculpted bodies of models on cookie cutter magazine covers, vintage-filtered foodporn images flooding Instagram every second of every day, remastered/remixed/readapted versions of original pop tunes, and a Tyler Brule-esque fantasy world tempting us at every turn in stylized advertising for everything from perfume to BBQs.
We needn’t look as far as Monocle to be reminded of our personal failing in the impossible quest for such total life precision. Side note: You may have figured out by now my love-hate relationship with this monthly book of indulgence for the perfection imagination. There is no faster way to feel demoralized than a quick surf through my social media feeds. Facebook abounds with friends’ carefully edited vacations, dinners, outfits, boyfriends/girlfriends, summer afternoons, perfect pets, perfect children and seemingly cooler-than-thou lives, captured at just the right moment and angle.
The myth of My Perfect Life
Today we have a collective obsession with the writing – and telling – of our individual story: Photoshopped, Instagramed and Facebooked into the stylized image we wish to project to the world. Each of us has more control than ever over how to express and codify this story. What we may not have expected is that it comes with that ever-present societal price tag: keeping up with the Joneses.
Our rampant culture of over-sharing fuels a self-consciousness to get it just right, all the time. After all, you never know when your smile, look, laugh or moment of pondering at a social gathering might end up on someone’s Facebook page.
We have all seen how social tools amplify the very best and worst of the human spirit. What we sometimes forget in the compulsiveness of it all is that we have a choice in how to use these powerful media. My recent 80s reminiscing reminded me of the awesome creativity in imperfection and dorky coolness. In today’s world, that means I can either:
- Spend my precious time tracking the coming and goings of others, worrying about the Social Paparazzi and lamenting over that bad angle captured in the split second I allowed myself a belly laugh and wasn’t paying attention to related laugh lines, snapped by a friend’s indiscreet camera. (Why do they always choose the absolute worst shot to tag?);
- Or I can choose to celebrate the beauty found in these moments of openness, vulnerability and imperfection (easier said than done, when my face is tagged forevermore in a scrunched up ball of terrible lighting…!).
Hold on tight…
The world today is at a crossroads. We each face a personal quest to find that illusive harmony between the world that is (material, image-obsessed) and what the world could be (joyful, harmonious, tolerant).
Amidst all of the uncertainty I sometimes find myself holding on for dear life to my social accounts and never-ending To Do list, finding temporary relief in their seemingly controlled chaos. However, another part of me knows that the price tag of this psuedo-perfection is much too high.
We are moving at a pace nowadays that is difficult for the old consciousness to fully comprehend. The only way to survive without driving ourselves to a state of utter helplessness is to go out and live — a sentiment that couldn’t be summed up better than in this iconic 80s film:
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller
These words couldn’t be more true today. With endless competing plays for our attention, we need to #LookUp every now and again, embrace life’s unexpected twists and turns, and celebrate the outtakes that usually end up on editing room floor of My Perfect Life.
(Feature photo: Ryan McGuire / gratisography)
