Social Media and the Loss of the Right Here and Now

Lets admit it, we are a pretty self-indulgent society and when we look at our priority list, feeling alive and the pursuit of happiness tops the list. As it should, right? The overwhelming need to feel alive is also complimented with one's consent to be a participant of an online show and tell because to feel alive is simply not enough. Spending as much as we have and doing as much as humanly possibly to prove to ourselves and everyone around us that you are in fact alive and having fun, however, is. I need only to scroll down my Facebook news feed to see a sea of shiny and seemingly happy faces on vacations, at concerts, restaurants and other neo-bourgeoisie dominated arenas to get the sense that one’s validation of a good time can only truly be justified if the physical evidence comes in the form of pictures plastered on the screen. Went to a party and had the best time of your life but don’t have pictures to share? Did it even happen? Went around the corner and had a mediocre time but tagged a picture of you and the neighborhood bassist doing shots? Welcome to the club, my friend! With that said, it is my belief that social media has contributed, contrary to popular belief, to the loss of the here and now, versus the development of it. Rather, it has made us all live in what I would like to call the “after moment of the now”. Our thirst is not for the here and now but the gratification that comes after the moment has passed and has been shared.  

It is the future Facebook “likes” and comments that make us capture moments on video and camera. It is the future validation of our peers that make us sit down before a meal and without even hesitating whip out our phones to document this glorious feast (picture first, sip of red wine after). It is the future slight mind trance of positive feedback and digital ego strokes that make us stand at a concert and look at the recording screen that has become the extension of our human hand versus the performing body that is in the here and now in front of us.

Make no mistake though, this post is not me saying I am outside of the above group because I am not. Like you, I too take a picture and anticipate (usually right after I hear “OK, on 3!”) if it will be FB profile worthy.  I am no better. I do however want to reclaim my moments of the hear and now. I want to go out with a group of friends and not take any pictures; mental photographs only. I want to go to Czechovski and not take “food porn” stills. I want to have an amazing day and not feel the need to have a matching post to go with. One day...