Published on 2025/02/19
NARCISSISM AND SOCIALMEDIA VOL30It's funny how when we see someone recording themselves in public, talking to their phone and exaggerating gestures, we feel a strong sense of secondhand embarrassment, yet that same video seems much more normal when we see it on social media. It might still make us cringe, but we process it differently. The key difference is that in real life, we don’t just feel discomfort—we perceive the person as ridiculous, out of place. On social media, even if they still seem absurd, the format smooths out that awkwardness and makes it easier to digest.
Editing, music, and dynamic cuts help frame the content in a way that fits the kind of media we consume daily, but if someone seems ridiculous, they’ll remain so, with or without filters.
Another factor is the break in reality. Watching someone film themselves strips away the illusion, like seeing a magician set up a trick before performing it. Then there’s the difference between witnessing something and being an audience—on the street, we feel like unwilling participants in something we didn’t choose to watch, whereas on social media, we’re already in consumer mode, so even if something makes us uncomfortable, it doesn’t trigger the same rejection.
Social dynamics also play a role. When we see someone recording in public, we share the secondhand embarrassment through glances or comments with whoever is next to us. But online, there's no external reinforcement, and we process it in a completely different way.
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Today's slow-motion moment.
Published on 2024/09/03
IT’S ME, ME, ME, AND THEN ME AGAINWhy do so many people feel the need to share everything they do on social media?
For many, the urge to post every aspect of their lives online stems from a desire for validation or approval. The "likes" and comments serve as a kind of positive reinforcement that makes them feel good about themselves. Each interaction acts like a small dose of dopamine, making it hard to resist the urge to keep sharing.
Social media also allows people to build and display an idealized version of their lives, a sort of digital showcase where everything looks perfect. This might be driven by a narcissistic tendency, where the goal is to attract attention and stand out from the crowd. The pursuit of that "perfect" public image becomes a form of self-affirmation, even if it doesn’t fully align with reality.
It’s a way to compete with others, trying to prove that their life is more interesting or exciting. In many cases, the need to share becomes an endless cycle of comparison and competition, where what really matters is not what is actually lived, but how it is presented to the world.
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Grandma’s 10,000 steps.
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Published on 2023/07/17
CLEANING THE BEACH AND OTHER STUFFAfter the constant and incessant bombardment of climate change information, the repetition of the phrase "we only have one planet and we have to take care of it", young people are growing up aware and trying, within their possibilities, to pitch in for this great common good.
A girl is dedicated to cleaning the beach, filling garbage bags with plastic remains brought in by the tide. Well, that's what you'll see on their social media platforms anyway. But in reality, it's all about posting what you want others to see and as soon as these people stop recording, they leave the bags right there so that the cleaning services can take care of it, because well, we pay taxes for a reason, right?
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The slow motion footage of the day.