The Fakeness of Reality

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Consider this – just over one hundred years ago, the Industrial Revolution brought about technological advances that were considered major advancements. Yet, the technological advances of those times would make even the most restrained modernist today scream for progress.

Reflect to ten years ago – the mainstream internet and mobile phone markets were just beginning to take off. The world was on the cusp of using instantaneous communications to its advantage … well, as instant as your dial-up speed allowed you to be.

Think of now. Instantaneous communication is not expected – it is a given. Can you imagine a world where you can’t just log onto your laptop and hook up to a hotspot to look at your friend’s holiday pictures on one of their many social networking profiles? A world where you have to schedule in a face-to-face visit to ooh and aah over the actual prints? Or how about a world where you have to wait for the postman to deliver your party invite instead of being able to RSVP at the click of a button in your Facebook Events?

The internet has had the fastest penetration rate of any form of communication and has changed social interactions and how we communicate with one another, even more so since the launch of MySpace in 2003 and Facebook in 2004. Distance has become irrelevant. The internet’s promise of now has become our accepted reality; yet we once dismissed this as a ‘virtual reality’ as it didn’t take place in the flesh. But, in today’s world, the offline and online bounce back and forth between one another faster than a ball served by one of the Williams’ sisters at Wimbledon.

The great thing about the internet is, yes, you can use it to communicate about your hobbies with complete strangers across the other side of the world, but likewise, you can use it to contact your friend who lives down the street to arrange lunch. Its range and diversity is incredible, but what about the more sinister side of the ease of the internet?

Take Facebook. Facebook is described as “a social utility that enables people to understand the world around them, facilitating the spread of relevant information through social networks, allowing people to share information online the same way they do in the real world through the creation of individual profiles”. Sounds lovely in theory that Facebook is enhancing society offline, but in practice? The reality is somewhat more dubious because of the uncertainty about the value of the information we are presented with – it is often unreliable and unverifiable – even though as a communication tool, Facebook does work.

The trouble I found with my research into Facebook is that people ‘play up’ their profile information, so how can it be a reality? It’s all about self-promotion because you know other people can view your little piece of cyberspace, and worst still, they can, and will, use it to judge you. As one person said to me:

My Facebook profile is simply a virtual portrayal of a person called X, nothing else. I don’t believe an internet profile can express who I am.

It’s all a big act – the razzle dazzle of the digital age – but if your identity constructs your very source of meaning and experience, what does that say about us all when we’re carefully selecting and editing our identity online? What’s the downside to all this wonderful technological advancement?

Take a look at people’s profiles if you’re on Facebook – a good look – notice anything? Typically, there are no admissions of dodgy characteristics lurking around. Take these rather tame examples from the ‘About Me’ section:

I’m X and I’m ace. So there.

You can’t beat me, I’m a rockstar! 

And isn’t that a nice photo? Used Photoshop by any chance? Let’s have a look at some photo albums. Ah, yes. There’s a trip to the Maldives. Notice how no one seems to create albums entitled ‘Sunday trip to B&Q’? The biggest problem with Facebook is that you have to take it all with a pinch of salt, at face value – what you see is what you get – at least online anyway. It’s like the Hollywood of the digital world – all airbrushed images and carefully constructed releases – but real life isn’t like that. We are not advertisements of a version of ourselves, as much as we pretend and would like to be.

I could go on and on about the fakeness of our new reality, but I won’t. Being online is brilliant because effectively you have the whole world (wide web) available at your fingertips; you’re no longer restricted by time or spatial constraints; and it has allowed us all access to an audience – a chance to use our voice, whether we want to blog, share images or music – but on the downside … just like the dot-com bubble burst, what happens when the social networking bubble bursts and we have to face up to the reality of who we really are?