FEEDS — thoughts by ollie francis

Why you shouldn’t have to choose between your social media and your life

Let’s face it: we’re living in an age of multiple realities. Not in terms of physical existence and string theory, but realities of the self, coexisting simultaneously. We have carefully curated Facebook feeds, witty Twitter personas and inspirational Instagram existences, clever musings on Medium and picturesque Pinterest collections. We craft the best of ourselves and put it online to create an image of the way we wish we were. We get the chance to edit ourselves and photoshop our lives.

I do it.

And I love it. It helps me better understand who I am by trying to create an image of the person I wish to be. I know that there is more to me than by digital projection, but I like the fact that I can look at a version of me that I can admire. It is all too easy to put ourselves down and make ourselves feel inadequate — but the curated self makes up pay attention to the part of ourselves we actually like.

I think that’s brilliant.

FEEDS deals with the darker side of the social media coin. It explores what happens when our social side is all we have left. It has become the immortal part of ourselves — the part we leave behind when we leave this life. We leave behind a huge digital footprint — more information that we have on any significant individual from history — photos, updates, notes and location data. The future will know more about us and our preferences for breakfast cereal than they ever will about Julius Caesar or Oscar Wilde or Martin Luther King.

And yet all that information will only mean anything to a small group of our family and friends — and even then, only for a few years. Eventually, no-one will go back to visit our records. Our browsing history will be forgotten on the back of a hard drive somewhere in North America.

But for a time, at least, someone will look for us among the data. If they ever find us, they will only find the best of us.

Originally published on Tumblr

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