It is a contest between us and everyone, sparking our urge to view all fellow humans as competitors and every word/act/interchange as an audition or race that we might lose.
The lives of others seem so sexy, fun and lush compared to ours as we naively observe manufactured lives, mistaking them for true.
We’re being watched and judged. Humans have always (sensibly) feared being monitored and scanned. But social media exhorts us to expose ourselves and love being surveilled.
On virtual stages, we pose. Performativity turns every word we type and every picture we post into a recital, everyplace we are into a stage and thus every reality less real.
We feel so ugly when comparing our unfiltered looks to those of users whom we don’t realize use filters
