Welcome to the digital world, where we can all have our dream digital lives through various social media! We are in a world where we can have 1000+ friends, express our thoughts, and virtually erase space and time between human beings due to the ability of instant communication!
We now have the opportunity to brand ourselves; after all, we choose what we tweet, what pictures we post, what e-mails we send, etc. We all have the ability to forge our identity to our liking!
…don’t we?
Ironically, we don’t have the ability to FORGE our identity to our liking.
The picture of this post is indicative of what kind of world we live in – social media have seemingly transformed into the digital equivalent of the “all-seeing eye”.
We CAN’T dare to live in states of illusion and fake profiles, distort one’s self and lie. With the digital all-seeing eye, we cannot fool ourselves into thinking that we can fool other people.
The digital all-seeing eye is composed of REAL people yearning for REAL interaction, wanting to experience REALITY. The reality of human beings. The reality of establishing relationships.
The thing is, social media DOES NOT enable us to FORGE our identity; rather, it is a medium by which the world can appreciate our TRUE, AUTHENTIC selves.
The digital world facilitates our quest to show the world how authentically unique we are. Any attempts to fool others are futile.
Consider a hypothetical business or corporation wanting to project an image of social responsiveness and high standard of ethics. We visit its hypothetical web site, read its pledge to CSR, still read further on its attempts to make the world a better place.
For a time, as innately trusting and good-natured human beings, we trust what we see.
Then, scandals can happen – in its full sensational glory.
What if this hypothetical business, behind the scenes, treats its employees like slaves, like dirt? What if an employee somehow manages to showcase the truth, post it on Facebook and make it go viral?
Down goes the “image” the hypothetical corporation is trying to convey. Social media is like a railway for the bullet train of authentic stories – it spreads things fast, making stops at every corner of the world, then speeds up in its lightning fast glory.
As we reach the end of this post, all I want to convey is that we cannot afford to live the lie in front of a digital all-seing eye. In traditional business jargon, it is not even cost-efficient nor cost-effective – the effort of lying to the world cannot simply be done. And if somehow a lie does slip, the digital all-seeing eye is always watching.
It’s hard to be consistent if we are not authentic. Actually, the only way to consistently live a projected image is if the latter is REAL and AUTHENTIC.
For non-believers in the omnipresence of a Higher God, at least believe in the “demi-omnipresence” of a digital all-seeing eye.
People will always be watching.
People will always yearn for the real thing.
We have no other choice. With a digital all-seeing eye and God’s omnipresence watching all over us, the only way to live in this era is be yourself – without lies, without deceptions, without illusions.
And the great thing about this era is this: an authentic self that is dedicated for the common good is rewarded with real, heartwarming appreciation.
