If No One Sees, Do We Exist?
FOMO, Facades, and the Fragility of Digital Existence
I want to say yes. We do exist. However, it seems to be so much more complicated than that. In a society that is ever focused on our individual presence, we think that the only times we are seen are when we make ourselves visible. In reality, we are so much more than what our profiles, bios, and broader digital footprint make us out to be.
We post because the likes and comments make us feel good. They are our friends, our family, people we know, others we knew, and some we want to know. We post for those people, not ourselves. Sit and think about why your Instagram or TikTok looks the way it does. Our curation of our lives creates this false facade of the perfect life that we are living. No one wants to see the hardship, only the highlights. If we disconnect ourselves, delete everything, and try to become ourselves again, does it matter?
It’s a fine line that we walk-making ourselves known or going off the grid-and personally, I can never figure out which is correct. For me, my presence is more than for myself, it’s the way I stay in contact with the people I meet. I would never hear from the people I had all those interesting encounters with- that long summer camp from two summers ago, my elementary schoolmates, and sadly, my closest friends. These apps provide superficial updates for one another. A way for us to see each other's newest projects, vacations, or simply daily lives. The fear of missing out (FOMO) is ever so consuming that it is hard to just quit entirely. The world feels like it is happening around us, and we won’t have the opportunity to be a part of it. I sometimes have to remember that I am more than the 28 posts I have online. Although in reality I am more than my accounts, if no one knows that, do I really exist.
I yearn for the past when our phones were as obsolete as the white Crayon in the Crayon box (necessary on a few occasions). Where conversations, mail, long phone calls, and meet-ups connected us, letting each of us know of each other’s presence. Now it seems we exist in a void. We are disconnected from our world and each other, so we live independently until meeting by chance. We are so wrapped up in our own worlds that we feel confined to the cell of our own making. It seems as if we've lost our words and feelings on the powerlines and have picked up a false persona on the way. Our “selves” are lost and replaced by something empty. In a world of 8 billion people, only our innermost circle knows we really exist.
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