Back in the early eighties, when she was barely known, Madonna dropped a single called like this blog entry, which became a huge hit and gave the the nickname The Material Girl for ages. She used a video to promote it where she played a Marilyn styled actress, surrounded by men in suit that brought her many expensive gifts. Funny thing is she goes to the exact opposite with the song Express Yourself years later.
In a world where people got scammed by the promise of easy wealth in virtual currency, where you can have an avatar that looks the way you wanted and live your life in a metaverse, when did we forget about reality? Have we gone too far in the use of smoke and mirrors? What’s even real anyway?
I already wrote about the image and the effort we are supposed to make to look like what social media and society expects from us in Hollywood. Still there is not only the appearance that matters but also how much you are worth. So much that people have come to create a virtual world where they pretend to be who ever they think the deserve to be, opposite to what they really are.
If you go on the social media, you will see very easy what the lifes of many of the people who have lots of followers look like, or at least what they are supposed to look like, because reality may be something very different. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as may many other social media platforms, show to them whatever the owners want to transmit, whether it is real or fake.
As I said on the post I quoted earlier on, the appearance is important, to look young and perfect is a must. You cannot look your age unless you are in your twenties. Fortunately many filters have been created to erase wrinkles, white hair and anything that could betray you and tell your real age. So basically you can post pictures on all those media where you look perfect, if that ever exists, and everyone will buy it. The question is, what happens when you meet in real life?
Back when I was in my early twenties, I met a guy on the Internet who sent me pictures of him where he looked amazing. Of course I wanted to meet him. When we did he looked kinda different. It was at night and light was at his advantage but I could see something going on. He ended up admitting he was a bit older than what he told me. He said he was 24 and he was actually 28 back then, and the pictures where from when he was that age, so they were basically 4 years old. To be honest I think now he was probably past his thirties but he didn’t want to admit it. I kept seeing him from time to time tho I hate people who lie. One day, long time after, and seeing him online posting the same pictures as he did to me when I met him, I told him «you know, I will be your age soon». He didn’t understand I meant I was going to be the age of the pictures he used since I was 22, six years before. I reached his age on his fake profile. I wonder if he still uses it.
I understand people want to look at their best, but sometimes it is just ridiculous. You can use filters to make them more attractive but at some point you are going to meet in real life and people will notice how you really look and that maybe you are not even the one in the pictures. What will happen then?
This does not only apply for the age, but also for the way of life you have or pretend to have. I’ve always said that my social media will show what I want it to show, not the reality, or at least not always. I’m honest with people, if I don’t feel OK I won’t be posting it, no one wants to see that. They only want the good stuff and nice things. It’s not real life. Some influencers (I hate that concept because they are no one to tell you how to live your life) will show the world how interesting or healthy or wealthy their lifes are, when it is all fake. They pose for the picture, they have false backgrounds or they pretend. Image is just an illusion.
When I was studying advertising and PR, we had a class about how the filmmakers would create beautiful images of food and drinks that make you drool, while the reality is that the chicken in the oven was just painted and had acid on it to look like it is hot, how the ice cubes on the soft drinks are actually made of glass and that those yummy burgers are mostly made of plastic (this could be true tho). Alcohol in movies are just tea of juices, actors don’t really eat the food, and many set are just made of cardboard. This is cinema and advertising, but it has gone to the real life. It has gone through the screen into reality.
https://amp.cheezburger.com/5663237/this-is-how-advertisers-trick-us-all-in-food-commercials
We all have seen those funny videos about men and women posing for the great selfie in places where they get swept away by a wave, or hit by and animal, or caught pretending to be the owner of a fancy car. Even to the point of using fake backgrounds for their pictures, whether it is for a fake holiday or just to pretend they have an intelectual life with those book shelves they used on those videocalls and that were sold everywhere during the confinement. Life is just an illusion. Theirs is. Others we have to live in the real world.
Madonna sang that we are living in a material world and she is a material girl, but nowadays we have both virtual and material worlds that we can live in. I will say it again. The social media is not real life. It is whatever you want it to be. You may appear there as someone with a huge bunch of friends, always partying, always having fun and every night is amazing, but the real you may not be like that at all. Visiting fancy places and being on holidays all the time, while the truth is you have to eat pasta everyday because you can’t afford that life, but no one will see it.
I used to know people that would tell us they were going on holidays to a very fancy place. They never shown us the plane tickets or anything because what they would actually do is stay home for a couple of weeks, avoid contact with us and hide. Then come back out and pretend they had been where they said they were. All lies, all fake, because they didn’t want to admit to themselves they could not afford that lifestyle.
It is true we live in material world. One where they made us believe we were rich and we could have everything we wanted. Where you can change phones every year or two because you finance them. You never pay anything fully, always monthly so you can afford it. It goes the same with the car or the flat you live in. We thought we could have everything and now we have to pretend we do. Here we have people that would buy a BMW and still won’t be able to put gas every time, so the car will rest untouched in their garage. It happened also with all the Apple products. People would kill to have them, even if it was just to brag about it. It applies also for bags and big expensive and exclusive brands that you will buy in the markets, knowing they are fake, but they will look amazing from the distance, and if you are gifted with photography, you can take great selfies with them and people will only see what you want them to see.
That’s why the creation of the metaverse, that virtual world where you can own lands, live there and have as many friends and things as you want, without paying as much as in real life. You can be whoever you want to be. Like a video-game but in real life. Escaping from reality is not something new. Science fiction has always existed, now it is mostly in the cinema but it started long ago in the books. Writers have always created imaginary worlds that we love. We have amazing storied been told since the dawn of time. Games like Dungeons and Dragons were invented so you could be the hero of a thrilling adventure. We all have been there and wished to be really there, and now the frontier of both worlds gets blurred. It is not in a galaxy far far away anymore.
Unfortunately some people have forgotten how to behave or they have lost the hability of dealing with reality and they just try to use their fake world to feel better. Life is hard and we have been living too many historical events lately. Some will find it thrilling, others are overwhelmed by it. Imaginary places have been replaced by imaginary lifes. This would be OK if you would be aware of it, but sometimes we don’t realise we are living in a fantasy. Everyday life can be dull and boring and scary, it has always been that way, we used to deal with it but now we prefer to live in a dream world.
October 2022
El camino de Santi 