False positives
When I scroll through social media, as we all do, I can’t help but notice something. And that is everyone is always way too happy.
Okay, Twitter/X shouldn’t be included in this generalization. It seems like all the negative energy on social media congregates there, which is why I don’t really use that particular platform.
Facebook pretty much gives me my social media fix, so I’m content to visit it a few times per day and that’s that.
But on the rare occasions I do go to something like Instagram, it seems like every single person posting there is exuding this obligatory positivity that can’t possibly be real.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe I make a solid effort to exude positive vibes on social media.
But when everyone is doing the same thing, it makes me wonder how real is this, really?
It reminds me of that theme from Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill, where the subject is in this “hypnotic rhythm”, either positive or negative. If we post on social media, particularly Instagram, it’s like there’s a flip switched and we automatically go into this “happy mode”, trying to show a side of us that we want everyone to see, and hide our darker side.
And we all have a dark side.
But we can’t reveal our struggles in life, can we? Expose our weaknesses?
What would people think?
They certainly would think less of us than the false positivity we’ve spent months, even years building up on Instagram.
Better to keep it bottled up, and perhaps hire a therapist to wring out the negative stuff in life.
The absolute last thing we want is to show weakness, or worse a character flaw.
Anyone who’s been on social media, particularly an “influencer” of some kind, knows what happens when one of the unwritten rules this false positive environment engenders is broken.
You get cast out by all the other “influencers” who fancy themselves as the gatekeepers of the tribe.
For you have disrupted the hypnotic rhythm of falsehood that enables their rise to power within their illusory castle that has been built by likes and follows.
What is a conscientious soul to do?
One option is to can shun social media altogether, as many choose to do. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this, but doing so kind of isolates you from the rest of humanity, doesn’t it? I mean, that is where humans congregate these days.
Another option is to go all in on the positivity bandwagon, and deceive yourself into thinking, “I’m going to be the one that brings change to this mess by rising above it and not being touched by it.”
That’s your ego talking. You can’t mess with fire and not get burned. You’ve also shown yourself to be a liar, for you secretly desire the fame other “influencers” have earned in this false positive environment.
Finally, you can go into the social media world simply aware of this false positivity and simply look for opportunities to have meaningful interactions with other people.
They’re there, and they probably want the same thing as you.