Anecdote about Social Media

Alexis de Anda's Mea Culpa, the comedian's latest Netflix special, contained some thoughts on Instagram I found worth transcribing from the subtitles.

(Here's a sample of her comedy, if you like.)

"It's a commercial which you make of your life," says de Anda about Instagram, "super false, hypocritical, 'Look, my life is perfect . . . Look at my chilaquiles. They're the best in the world. Watery, covered in flies, they're beautiful. Look at my feet. Look. Maybe with this filter you won't see the corns' . . . I'm going to upload a photo of my face so that I can get ten little hearts and feel like I matter for ten seconds. Then empty again. On and on, until the day I die."

Surely the majority of us can identify that minute dopamine release from someone else's reaction to our social media activity, but I can't recall ever seeing the subject investigated from the perspective of social media as a tool for constructing a fulfilling personal narrative.

So, I have to ask: Is there a better way to not feel empty for ten seconds?

Is there a way to not feel empty for longer than ten seconds?

Or should emptiness become the goal? Should we stop using strategies like social media to fill that void, and instead accept it into our consciousness? In doing so, could we stand to gain some peace of mind that cures whatever psychological tendency, of which we name as a symptom this use of social media as a source of false fulfillment?

Of course I have no answers. Just sharing the questions on my mind.