If we didn’t film a memory, did it really happen?
Since home cameras blew up over 50 years ago, we’ve been snap-snapping away, bottling our memories into albums and albums of photos.
Predictably enough, home video followed suit.
Then smartphones happened, and the cosmos ripped in two.
Recording got so hyper convenient, many people were recording everything- just cause they could. Everything became a Kodak moment.
We can document and share our lives instantly, in high resolution without even the hassle of storing a physical item.
Think about it for a second… For most of human history, you were lucky to have so much as a portrait or statue to your name. And that was for the elite of elites.
And yet here we are, with Jane and Jon Doe presenting their lunch to their Instagram following of 241, with a snazzy Instagram filter to boot.
Is oversharing a product of our time, or are we products of oversharing?
And why do we overshare anyway?
I think there are a few categories of why.
Some do it as a subtle way to “ping” their friends to stay on the radar.
Others do it for more sentimental reasons, recording their life events like a living documentary.
I get it. Purpose and meaning is hard to come by, and this may be as good as any.
Finally, let’s not forget old fashioned vanity (not to be confused with arrogance, as these people are often highly insecure).
Technology has let people turned their friends and followers into their magic social mirror. They seek real-time admiration for their attractiveness and larger than life lifestyle.
Life gets curated like an upscale art gallery. Beautiful sunsets. Expertly framed “accidental” selfies. Exotic locations. Parties.
In these select, idyllic snapshots there are no dangers, responsibilities or anxieties. Just freewheeling joy and luxury. As if to say “I live every moment to the fullest, and here’s the proof.”
And for the most part, outside of some trolling here and there, the “social mirror” gives them their fix.
I don’t want to blame social media for vanity. It’s always been around. It’s just the availability and size of the “mirrors” that have changed. And the change is a big deal.
Once upon a time, only celebrities got to broadcast their vanity to the world, and it took a veritable PR village to make it happen. For average folk vanity was confined to whoever could physically meet you.
Today everybody is, in effect, a celebrity. Anybody with a phone can have a promotional channel anyone in the world can see.
With everyone competing for the “coolest life” and “best looking” awards, pressure is on to keep up appearances. To be visible, sometimes too visible.
People and their lives have blemishes. But social media lets you both filter and refine the content to your heart’s desire. Be seen at your best. Pull people closer while holding them at a safe distance.
Mothers often complain about the ill impacts of physical dolls marketed to young people. For instance, most young girls can’t attain Barbie’s physical figure or lifestyle.
But meanwhile in the virtual world, you saw a proliferation of both physical and lifestyle barbies. Peoples’ Instagram selfies tend to make them conform to some uniform unattainable standard of beauty.
Hell, ever see the “make-up free” pictures beautiful people post? That’s a humble brag if I ever saw one. They still look better than you, plus they get to take 50 and choose the cutest one.
If 40 is the new 20, it’s probably because in a world of filtered people, there is no difference. We can’t always BE our best, but we can always appear to be so.
Ultimately, your selfies will stop looking as good as they once did. Guaranteed.
Social media has opened the average person to the global “mirror”. People who want admirers from all across the world can have them. But they also have to age in front of those people, which is less fun.
Climb to the top of the vanity tree, risk hitting every branch on the way down. Aging sucks, physically. Always has.
This culture of oversharing says lots of things. But the most profound one, in my opinion, involves our relationship with aging itself.
Technology can shield us from most uncertainty, inconvenience and consequence. But as of yet it hasn’t solved aging.
And you can’t outsource your aging to someone else. No matter your wealth and influence, as of 2018 you can’t pay someone to age for you. All you got to stay young is exercise, kale shakes and a little genetic luck. How inconvenient.
Aging is the ultimate inconvenience, and along with poverty and sickness, society does it best to censor its harshest realities from our media.
Capitalist, urban societies reinforce this view, treating old folks like society’s speed bumps. An eyesore, a burden, an inconvenience. They want them in little old people villages where young people never have to see them. So is it any surprise we fear aging so much?
Going forward I believe we will see an incredible amount of money and resources devoted to slowing the aging process… Even reversing it if possible.
Can aging be “solved”? It’s hard to know. But stranger things happen in science all the time.
Organ transplants were a big deal 50 years ago. Imagine a world where brain transplants are mainstream.
You might start seeing full body donors. A beautiful woman dies in a car crash in her prime, and becomes the vessel for a 90 year old brain (hopefully female too, cause otherwise this could get very weird).
On the darker side you may see “body trafficking” markets emerge in third world countries, for the benefit of elderly westerners clinging to youth.
Ick. I prefer the next possibility: Cybernetic shells for brains. Something like Krang from Ninja Turtles, minus the “speedo man with a brain in his stomach” look.
Point is the DEMAND is there. Never underestimate the power of hurt egos to drive science forward.
My humble hope:
If we conquer aging, it be for the right reasons. Based on a genuine appreciation of life itself. Extending it for quality, not just quantity- and certainly not for the sake of upping our selfie game.