A ghillie suit of normalcy

The biggest problem with social media is the disparity between what we’re shown and what really is. Services like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram make it possible for us to construct an image of who we want to be, not who we actually are, and pass it off as authentic.

That’s one of the reasons social media is so anxiety-inducing. It surrounds us with pixel perfect profiles of our friends and idols. Meanwhile, we listen to our own thoughts and can’t help but decide we’re flawed in comparison.

Of course, it’s a mis-perception. We inhabit our own minds and bodies around the clock, whereas we only see these carefully-crafted persona for fractions of our day. Now, there are various remedies that can prevent this mis-perception causing too much carnage. Some are extreme—cutting yourself off from social media entirely—and others are not. For example, one of the simplest is to remember the following: we are all broken in our own special way.

Every human being is flawed, is cracked, is damaged good. Some people’s flaws are overt and outstanding. They’re obvious to even the most ignorant of observers. But most people’s vices, struggles and insecurities are buried deep, camouflaged in a ghillie suit of normalcy, segregated from the facades that we construct for society and the communities we move amongst.

If we can remember that, chances are, we’ll be a little nicer to others and to ourselves. If we can all remember that it might make it easier for everyone to be happy being themselves.