Social Media Illusion
The term “social media illusion” is getting more relevant in this internet era. Most developed and civil society people use different social sights to become closer. Though we are defining these platforms as social, do we realize whether it is socializing or taking us away from the real world? Though the amplification of the internet makes cultural communication convenient and develops a virtual earning source among people, who are connected via the internet, why is it considered an illusion? To know the answer, first, it is fundamental to know about the term ‘illusion’.
What Is Illusion?
Verbally, the illusion is an obsession or phantom. It propounds an unreal illustration or presentation that one wants to think, see or believe. The term ‘illusion’ is significantly closer to‘ imagination.’ According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, an illusion is an idea or belief that is not true or something that is not what it seems to be.
Is Social Media An Illusion?
I will provide some examples here to make you understand if social media is an illusion or not. Suppose, on the weekend; you are reading a book lying on your bed with a peaceful mind. Your friend uploads a couple of pictures of her island relaxation moments on Facebook at that time. You put the book aside and become interested in seeing the pictures meticulously. Gradually you started to get upset for some unknown reason.
Or, imagine you are a minimalist and happy with what you have gained. But someday, you see your cousin posting pictures on her Instagram profile with an expensive brand-new car. From that moment, you started thinking life had deprived you.
Again, you wake up one morning and see your mother has cooked your favorite chicken curry. The meal fills you with joy, and you eat everything. But at noon, you saw your friend sharing his meal pictures in an expensive restaurant. Your mind began to change rapidly, thinking about why you could not go to that restaurant like your friend!
Do you find any similarities between these events with any of your incidents? Or is there any relation between these events? Please think properly about why you put the book aside and got upset seeing your friend on an island in the first incident. Why did you start feeling unhappy comparing yourself to your friend? Since you were delighted with your book, there was no need to judge your position with others. But being influenced by social media, you did this.
Secondly, you get frustrated when you discover that your cousin has a new car without knowing if it is hers. Since life is not a bed of roses, all lives have to pass their struggle differently. But you changed your perspective and decided the car was a measurement of success within just a second without verifying anything. You lose your happiness and individuality with your simple lifestyle.
However, in the third one, it can be seen transparently that there is a tendency to simulate others in a very colorable way. Ignoring family members makes you desperate to show yourself off in front of another person who belongs to your social media account. These three cases prove that you are addicted and influenced by social media. In addition, social media is dominating you to make irrational decisions imperceptibly.
Besides, social media makes someone blind and forces them to believe everything revealed on that platform. Nevertheless, there is no opportunity to verify these things which appear on social media. Even a person cannot know another person here entirely. Whatever one wants to share, she shares on the internet. People believe in what doctrine someone is showing on social media. Moreover, they are not interested in realizing whether the person obeys this thought in his daily life or not.
On the contrary, social media affects our mental health. Since people always want to express themselves as intelligent and happy, they use social media as a platform to show their positive and happy souls of them hiding the opposing truth. At one stage, it becomes a resistless chain, and the process spreads among the remaining portion of people who use social media.
Can You Relate the Concept of Illusion to This Stuff?
When you notice your friend’s happiness, you feel the urge to look glad on these platforms using fake expressions. You forget these may be false, and these cannot be a standard of ultimate happiness.
Being subservient to social media, you cannot enjoy your real life. Scrolling through these profiles is a waste of time. Colonial sights force you to live a life where you cannot touch or feel the people on the internet. Childs cannot listen to fairy tales from their parents or grandparents but spend time on Youtube playing different videos. A traveler can not relish the absolute pleasure of traveling but instead makes videos of his social sights to get fame.
Moreover, family members cannot spend their precious time getting closer. They forget to spend quality time with another relative or close friend in their real life.
However, virtual life on social media keeps us in an illusion where everything seems as complete and perfect as we want to imagine. It binds us all around with an invisible net we cannot see. Besides, it confines our power of thinking and makes us unrealistic. So, considering these statements, it is evident that social media is creating an illusionist world for us.
