One of the main issues I have with our internet obsession is that very often what we see of peoples' lives is their highlight reel. You know, all the awesome bits about their lives wrapped up in one smartly worded tweet or totes hipster square framed image, complete with clever caption and a few hashtags thrown in for good measure. I am not the first to write about this and I'm sure I won't be the last, but the whole thing really depresses me. To get all Fight Club about it, we are not our highlight reels.
Another issue I have with this interconnectedness is that, inherent in it, is that old chestnut keeping up with the Joneses. His highlight reel is more attractive/more fulfilling/more expensive than mine; her's is more intellectual/more fun/more politically relevant than mine. I can't possibly post about my exciting/life changing/hilarious news because it simply doesn't compare to his or hers.
Last week I went and saw the amazing Alison Bechdel talk (I felt very literary and intelligent, I hope it showed) and she said two things (alright, there were plenty of incredible and well articulated things she said, I'm just talking about two of them right now) that really struck me (and here I'm paraphrasing in the extreme).
The first thing was that she started writing her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, because she wanted to see her reality - her life and that of her friends and family - reflected somewhere 'out there'. Because she figured if she wanted to see it out there, she probably wasn't the only one.
The second thing she said was that we are all the same really. We might see ourselves as an aside to the rest of humanity, but really, when it all comes down to it, we're all the same. We have the same hopes and dreams, we get worried, stressed and scared - just like everyone else.
These things stuck with me because I've been wanting to start a blog for a while but have been holding back because I don't really see my life reflected 'out there' and therefore feel that if it's not already out there, then I guess nobody else is like me - and who wants to read about my life between the highlights? Because really, right now, my life has very few highlights. I avoid checking social media regularly because I feel like just about everyone I know is living a better life than me - travelling, buying houses, having kids, getting fit and healthy, being awesomely creative/entrepreneurial/hipster/intellectual on a level that I simply am not.
But then I also know that that's not entirely true. I'm not trying to make out that my life is one dismal moment after another. It's not. It's just that my highlight reel doesn't look like anyone else's I know. So, wanting to see my reality reflected somewhere, I thought I'd get mine 'out there' - as well as all of those in between moments that make my life my journey and no one else's.
travelling, buying houses, having kids, getting fit and healthy, being awesomely creative/entrepreneurial/hipster/intellectual
ReplyDeleteyeah sounds like my life! hahaha