Questions for a Digital World

Must we prove we're alive?

Are we dead if we don't?

Are we dead if that's all we ever try to do?

How does being perceived affect the ways we live?

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I recommend taking your time with those questions before you read any further.

For the most part, people tend to bring up the "if a tree falls in the forest" question jokingly, and so I never thought about its deeper implications until recently.

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Here's my alternative to that, and one of the many ways it could be interpreted:

From a personal standpoint, if you lived your life without others approving or reassuring the choices that bring you joy, could you be truly, fully content?

...

Physically disconnected... virtually connected - this is the Digital Age.

In the face of this moment, I have frequently felt a primal urge to prove who I am with what I share online. And with the algorithms of our media being flooded now more than ever, that craving is rarely satiated. To top it all off, I do not really know who I am! Asking others to hand me that answer sounds like a big request.

Allowing others to perceive you in a positive light seems comforting - as if you could trust them to judge and understand you better than yourself!

I hope that sounds a little crazy when put that way. Nevertheless, it feels so concrete to be acknowledged like that. To feel grounded in the approval of others. I've become more aware, though, of how absurd this habitual expectation is. Would you still be doing the things you do if they were to go undocumented? That's one way to quickly reflect on who you're living your life for.

The things we want the most in life - fulfillment, happiness, success, love (fill in the blank with your qualitative desires here) - they're not something you find using a one size fits all, step by step guide. We've compromised our pursuit by letting others, many of whom are strangers, tell us if we're getting closer to our desires. See how that doesn't make sense? How likely it is their gratification could be wrong? How we could all be lying to ourselves?

Who knew we could give false advertising the power to fool us like that.

Perhaps it's better to remain unsatiated, to continue to feel the drive to search and tackle - instead of finding the dopamine hits that let your desires go dormant.

Perhaps the lack of satisfaction ought to be used as inspiration to choose courage, try something scary, totally out there, and/or entirely different from your usual strategy.

Perhaps it allows us to find contentment in an imperfect scenario.

What I wonder is this: do we begin to live or do we stop living when we are being perceived? On one hand it acts as a form of motivation and accountability to our commitments, but on the other side of the spectrum is succumbing to the pressure to "give the people what they want," when in reality they most likely couldn't care less. However, if they did care and were truly opposed, would you really want to stop pursuing your dreams because of them?

I'd hope not!

It's good to listen to others, but remember to accept the feedback and ignore the criticisms. You might not always need someone else's opinion.

Cultivate trust within yourself. Reflect on the intentions behind what you do often. With that in mind, you might find enough internal justification to live your life a little more liberated.

Deep breaths,

Hannah