The Illusion of Pure Bliss

As we all navigate through the media drenched world of the 21st century, one thing to keep at the forefront of all thought is that social media is highly curated. What we see is not always the complete story. In fact, I’d argue that it’s just a fraction of the story — a tiny slice of what we find suitable for sharing in order to present ourselves in good light.

I have to remind myself of this often when succumbing to the never ending scroll, despite the fact that I am guilty of doing the exact same thing. I pay very close attention to what I present and how I present it on social media. But like many people, I follow celebrities and other high status individuals while sometimes losing sight that they too are curating everything they present. If I’m not careful, the result can leave me feeling empty, unaccomplished and inadequate.

For myself, I don’t post things I’m not proud of. I don’t post works that I think are off or poorly executed. But guess what. I have a ton of work that doesn’t look good — work that is way off and very poorly executed! My ongoing mission is to produce less and less of those works, but, y’know… shit happens.

For every work of art I am proud enough to post on my Instagram, there are five other pieces of garbage buried in a bucket. My sketchbooks are a great example of this. To the casual observer, my sketchbooks look like scribbled nonsense from an insane asylum. I don’t let others look at them. They are extremely private because they show warts and all — the incoherence of my thoughts and ideas before I’ve had any chance to edit, hone and sculpt them into presentable ideas and fine works of art.

This is okay, of course. It’s normal. It’s all the hard work and heavy lifting that produces the final, desired result. But most people, myself included, don’t show any of that. It often doesn’t look good. It can be embarrassing even.

So the next time you find yourself scrolling through an endless timeline of people living their best life, don’t let it depress you in to thinking you’re not doing it right. There’s stuff they’re not showing you too. It’s not pretty nor potentially viral enough to share, but it one hundred percent exists.