The Battle of Glitches and the Field of Facade

Does anyone still remember that time when people are almost always in time? You know, that time when we don’t depend on phones and messengers whenever we are about to meet someone ‘cause we set the time the night before and we have no means of communication going to the set place. Remember when our problems are only shared with people close to us? Remember when we always take a lot of effort to look good before entering a conversation? Yup, some people may forget because our memories have been overwhelmed by the how communication changed through time but I’m here to remind that, yes, there was a time when it was easier to get to know a person. Let me further imply my point. Although, technology did made our life easier, everybody knows that it has some low points. See, the thing about social media and technology is: it made me wonder about the actuality of a person’s identity in social media and in real life.

 The thing about the internet and the people inside it is this: You will never know which side of them is real. People my age who indulge themselves with different social media accounts uses fake pictures and fake names. What can I say? We love being mysterious. But it made me wonder what is real and not. A friend of mine can be very aggressive in the internet. Pours out all her emotions and anger about the world. When I called her and ask what’s wrong she’ll simply say “I’m okay”. So what was that about? Is she lying about her post to gain attention through social media? Or she just don’t know how to express her emotions in real life. That brought me to wonder which is which. It’s like consciously having two personalities. One is being some sort of glitch who occasionally produces an unexpected burst of emotion in social media and the other is a timid young girl who lives in a little town who has a very stable internet connection. And the truth is, this happens not only to one person. People all over the world can be like this. There is a whole side of the internet where a battle of glitches happen when in real life, it is as if nothing happened.

 It has been clear to me that people in the internet can’t be trusted because they hide their true identities. But this agendum made me believe that people in reality can be living inside this cocoon of façade where their true identities can only be seen when they face their screens.