Recalling my childhood years, I remember watching an episode of Desperate Housewives, where one of the characters, Gabrielle Solis, claimed that money made people #happy, but the opposite is told in order to keep the underprivileged ones from rioting. On the other hand, Buddhist philosophy claims that #happiness is a choice. #Happiness is the key to a good life, isn’t it? Did you also wonder for the third time that why three of the words above have a hashtag in front of them? Ms. Solis and Buddha would not have known. The first one enjoyed life freely with her neighbors and the gossip around the street, while the second one simply kept his mind clear via meditation. Unlike them, today we are addicted to technology and social media. We use hashtags to express what are we doing and how we feel. But are we really happy?
Whenever my friend Katerina and I go out for a coffee, we jokingly say: “We did not have a coffee, if we did not post it on social media.” We put on a smile, and that’s it. Two seconds later, the screen depicts two happy, careless young adults enjoying their coffee, while in reality, we are complaining about our daily struggles, such as budget management, college assignments… and there is a chance the coffee may not be that good!
We are living in the digital era, where one’s character is valued through his or her number of followers on Instagram and the shared content there. The more lavish it is, the better! What is interesting is that social media does not divide through gender, age, or social class. Everybody can be a star there, no matter how idealized or exaggerated it can be compared to their actual lifestyle. If you are doing it good you can even make a living out of it. The term influencer is newly-introduced in the list of occupations. They are simple Instagram users reached out by various companies in order to promote their products. These people cause a domino effect on the people who follow them, especially teenagers.
One example is the Kardashians, who rule the marketing world on Instagram. They literally make their audience run to the nearest store to purchase whatever they promote and have it posted on Instagram because this is going to make them look “rich and successful” as them. At this point, the audience has created an online reputation that gives them numerous standing ovations through the never-ending “likes”, but it merely feeds their fake happiness to indulgence.
Social media sells, but the quality is questionable. The truth is that not everybody will look the same if they dye their hair like Kim or wear the new Air Jordans. We are sculpting our lives based upon the wrong models, and that will definitely not lead to a happy ending. Gabrielle and Buddha did not depend on social media, and they were truly happy!
Комментарии