Here lies social media, where seeing is deceiving. Where you may stay updated on the lives of your acquaintances – the lives that they pine for, at the very least. Visions of ages past, lost in nostalgic fixation or days that pass them by, scrolling endlessly, as they sink deeper in a pit of despair – the outcome of a lack of attention. Don’t be fooled by their captions rivalling essays once wrote during school days, for they may only reveal what may expose their pity, for pity is still attention – is it not? If not one way, then another, they seek it.
Here lies social media, where nothing is without meaning. A thirst trap on Instagram, to reveal that she does deserve better than him, text slashed across her eyes so they may only focus on her enhanced form. A check-in on Facebook to show how worldly they are, travelling across the skies in search for happiness found only in the quantity of likes on their high-quality photos upon their return. A thread on Twitter to say the words she could not spit on his face, a toxic relationship she’s too vulnerable to break in the hopes of his other viewing her profile, her words made public only for this duration, this thread.
Here lies social media, where your achievements aren’t in existence – unless those you call your friends on Facebook are made aware of it, for how else is your mother to brag about her child without the evidence of a social media post? Is she to lie to them – as you now lie to yourself saying that you don’t crave the attention? How do you deny such a thing if the lack of insurmountable likes pushes you to delete the aforementioned post, out of fear of judgement for not being significant enough to garner a certain number of likes?
But what baffles me is – are they undeniably your friends or your critics, if you fear their criticism, such as you do? If not – or if so – why turn your life around for them? Why not live for yourself for just a single moment without the world knowing? But – you do live for yourself, don’t you?
Alone in your pit of despair.
Writing Better 