Social media is a weird concept.
I deleted all my social media years ago, and the longer I’m away from it, the weirder the entire concept feels to me. Like when you really stop and think about it, social media as a whole is actually weird as fuck. Like genuinely. The whole concept of it. And I know this sounds obvious because we’ve normalized it now, but sometimes I step back and think wow, what the fuck are we actually doing? Why are we all performing for strangers? And I’m not talking about using social media to keep up with family or friends far away. I understand that part. I mean the overall thing itself. Posting constantly, recording everything, broadcasting your life to people you don’t even know or talk to. It just feels strange to me now. Maybe I see it differently because I’ve always been a naturally private person, but to me, the people who genuinely matter in my life already know what I’m doing, where I’m at, how I’m feeling, etc. I don’t really feel the need to announce my existence online anymore. Everybody also feels like they’re trying to get somewhere now. Everybody’s trying to go viral, gain an audience, build a brand, monetize themselves somehow, or turn their entire personality into content. And don’t even get me started on flexing culture because that’s exhausting too. I know people have always flexed to some extent, but social media amplified it into something nonstop. Everybody flexing money, relationships, vacations, lifestyles, bodies, success, achievements. And I understand WHY people do it. Most people want validation, attention, reassurance, status, acceptance, whatever. I get it. But when you step back and really look at it, the whole thing still just feels bizarre. Like what are we actually doing?
Even regular life things become trends now. Farming, spirituality, wellness, healing, nature, minimalism, everything gets turned into some online identity or image. And now I keep hearing words like “aesthetic” being used for literally everything and I’m just like what the fuck. Even though I’m not on social media anymore, I can still tell when certain words or behaviors are trending online because suddenly everybody starts talking the same way in real life. You start hearing the same phrases over and over and it’s like okay, y’all definitely got this from TikTok. Some of it honestly just sounds dumb. And maybe this sounds judgmental, but you really can tell sometimes when somebody genuinely cares about something versus when they just saw it online and adopted it overnight. Like suddenly everybody wants a farm now, but do they actually want farm work? Animals? Labor? Responsibility? Or do they just like the image of it? Same with spirituality and wellness and everything else. It’s like people don’t even get the chance to naturally become themselves anymore before the internet hands them an identity to copy.
And another thing is how internet culture has completely bled into real life. People repeat the same opinions, jokes, phrases, and personalities over and over until everybody starts feeling weirdly identical. Sometimes it honestly feels like watching the same fish swim around in a fishbowl. Everybody consuming the same things, saying the same things, reacting the same way, and the moment you think differently, even if it’s harmless, people jump on you for it. Maybe humanity has always been trend driven to some extent, but social media amplified it into something constant and all consuming. Sometimes authenticity and originality just feel rare now. And yeah, I know posting this on Reddit is a little contradictory, but these are just thoughts I’ve had for a while.