Real people are so much better than false facades!
I wrote before how I ditched Facebook early on. I noticed that people who I knew, whose lives were fairly ordinary - if not a smoldering train wreck - appeared to be fabulous on Facebook. Their headshot or whatever they called it, showed half their face (a trend at the time - everyone copies everyone else on Facebook) which made them appear kicky and trendy. Their status was always something cool, like "Just went rock climbing!" or "just baked this cake!" accompanied by a perfect photo of said same activity.
No one ever had their status as "chronically depressed" or "I need to clean my room" accompanied by photos of the actual squalor they lived in.
It ain't hard to make your life seem fabulous with Facebook or any social media site. You just take 500 photos with your phone - preferably at some crowded tourist site so you annoy everyone else - and then pick the one "fabulous" photo (there is bound to be one that doesn't show your double-chin) and post it. But it is, in a way, fake. And of course, if the perfect photo doesn't exist, a "filter" or AI program can create one for you. Or just show your "Avatar" instead.
Back in the day, you took pictures with your Kodak Instamatic 125 which had a tiny film strip inside. You took that to the Fotomat booth in the parking lot of the strip mall and a week later got your "photos" back. Maybe you might put them in an album or perhaps show them to a few friends at work. "Hey, here's some photos of us rock climbing two weeks ago!" you say, and your friends squint to see your scowling face in those grainy tiny photos. It was a lot more real.
Reality television is partly to blame for this trend as well. As we now know, there is no reality in reality television. Rather you put a dozen people on a boat or an island or in a house or whatever, and then prompt them to do things and film hundreds of hours of useless footage. From this, you selectively edit a few minutes and then create a drama narrative. Using the same footage again and again, you can create entire seasons of "content" and make it appear that the folks all hate each other.
In contrast, the above video is of a family in Southern Utah who operate a trail recovery service - towing hapless tourists out of the wilderness after they discover their "trail-rated" Jeep is anything but. Street tires in deep sand and mud? Bad choice! What is even more interesting is how these "side-by-side" ATVs come apart on the trail, breaking tie rods, ball joints, and in one case, snapping an axle off. But I guess that means more business for this family. What is neat about the videos is that everyone is nice to one another and treats each other with respect. Everyone gets to drive the wrecker - husband, wife, sons and daughter. No one is ridiculed - even and especially the customers. And no one is waving a Trump flag or injecting politics into the video. And the technical parts are technical, too! But the best part is the host's self-depreciating humor, his ability to admit fault and general genial nature. That and his affection for older Corvairs! My only critique is a slight predilection to click-bait titles.
But apparently people like to watch people argue and fight. Early on, I was excited when they came out with "reality" shows about building hot-rods or motorcycles. I was hoping for lots of technical information and videos of "how to" and so on. Sadly, after the first few episodes, they devolved into people throwing wrenches at each other over imagined (and prompted) slights. Apparently folks like to watch other people argue and the trend goes on today with Tick-Tock videos of people fighting in public (physically) or doing evil "pranks" - and no one stops the fights, either, but rather whips out their phone to video it all, hoping to monetize their YouTube channel.
Speaking of which, don't bother. If you came up with a compelling video, say, of a door plug being blown out of a 737, and posted it to your YouTube channel, it would be copied and used by channels already monetized (and used by the mainstream media as well, as "fair use") before you could start the process of monetizing your YouTube channel. In order to monetize your YouTube channel, you must have so many views a month, which means you have to spend your life creating content constantly, just to get started. And then once you get started, you may find that the amount you make is, well, bubkis.
But getting back to topic, what started me on this was a posting I saw online where a guy in New Hampshire was wondering "what he was doing wrong" with his Tinder profile. What he was doing wrong was living in a small town in New Hampshire - with a population smaller than the student body at my undergraduate Alma Mater. But what was interesting is that his "profile" was indeed perfect in that he had the perfect photos of him doing fun things and whatnot, as well as bragging about his academic credentials (no word on work credentials, though!) as though it was a Linked-In profile (another evil site of self-aggrandizement and narcissism).
He's doing everything right - by the standards of today's social media. The problem is social media, which encourages us, nay, forces us, to present these polished versions of ourselves - versions that are too perfect and too facile. I mentioned the use of filters before and that pretty much sums it up - "influencers" who have unreal figures when "on the air" but are caught out as quite ordinary when the filter messes up for an instant. What's wrong with being normal?
And why do we have to "sell" ourselves like we are used cars or something. "Here's a creampuff, low miles, garage kept! Real bargain and on sale this week! Click here for more information!"
I mentioned before how, back in the day, people were too shy to record messages on an answering machine, thinking that doing so was too narcissistic. Not today! Everyone is a potential star on "America's got talent!" or whatever. Funny how we have changed in response to technology. Today, you would be called introverted - back then, you were deemed normal.
I am so glad not to be on the dating scene, though. And yes, the gays do this nonsense as well - probably worse than most. You see guys at gay venues (bars, campgrounds, etc.) wandering around staring at their phones, looking for the "perfect match" on Grinder. It is like that scene in Alien where you can see the alien creature as a red dot on your screen and track them in real-time. As the beeping gets louder and more frequent, watch out!
People live this parallel life on the screen and "real life" never matches up to it, so they are bitterly disappointed with reality and go from one partner to another, searching for a perfection that doesn't exist. And trust me, even if you found "Mr. Perfect" (or Ms. Perfect) you wouldn't want to date or marry them, as they would constantly remind you how lucky you are to be in a relationship with them and not vice-versa. The "trophy wife" is no trophy!
Sadly, this trend is getting worse. "Meta" promises us a virtual world where everyone is perfect and nothing bad ever happens. They are running ads online showing people smashing flying balls (for exercise) while surfing in the air on magic discs, apparently flying over some national park or seashore. Given that "Meta" doesn't even have legs on its "avatars" yet, I am shocked this is not brought up to the FTC on charges of false advertising.
God forbid this "Meta" thing actually worked as advertised. We would all descend into a virtual world and seal ourselves off from reality and each other. Think I am exaggerating? Look how smart phones have changed social interaction, forever, within a scant decade.
Virtual Reality combined with AI will allow us all to become lotus-eaters. We will retreat to our underground lairs, much like the scenario described a century ago by E.M. Forster. Already we have people believing in bullshit like flat earth and other conspiracy theories. No one actually knows (or wants to know) how the very technology that keeps our civilization alive, actually works. The Machine Stops.
But I don't think it will come to that, simply because human relations will break down long before the machines do. We see this worldwide, with fertility rates dropping the fastest in Western countries where technology is more present. Meanwhile, third-world birthrates are climbing. In Japan, the over-70 set out-populates the under-20 set. In Africa, the average age is 25. It is not a matter of blacks versus whites or "the great replacement theory" but technological societies devolving into naval-gazing online and on their phones, while societies with less technology live in the real world.
This unfortunate dude in New Hampshire is just the latest casualty. He is probably a nice guy if you met him in person, but on Tinder, well, something isn't working. And for some reason, today, people feel they can only meet their dream date through an app.
We are being smothered by our own technology!
