Random Musings About Social Media, Community, Writing, and "Being Seen"

What brings us here, to a place like this? 

This community of people, tied together by what they perceive to be possibly a common thread. For some, it is the love of writing, of art, of creativity, of sharing, of photography, of connecting.... while others will claim they are here "for the money."

Reaching Out...

We write opinions of our own, as we read the opinions of others; belong to groups and groups within groups that somehow resonate with us; or make sense, or make us feel connected, or informed, or educated. We translate our thoughts into articles, and we upload photos and build networks of friends.

For many, it is done in the name of “sharing,” yet I wonder…

To what degree are we are we here for the actual “sharing” and to what degree is this all a greater exercise in “Being Seen” within a multiverse where we all are so busy looking at our screens that the quality of our connections suffer; we sit in restaurants and type in abbreviations at each other about the tenderness of our steaks.

The media talks about information overload while it overloads us, and we lament the "twitter-fication" of the world. No longer is writing, publishing, and making a personal statement the domain of a chosen few-- it has become the domain of EVERYone.

We reach out... "is there anybody OUT there...?"

To be Seen... and Not Seen

I have spent much of my life being “not-seen,” which (in itself) sounds paradoxical (or at least mysterious) to others, given that I stand 6'4”/193cm tall. 

”How can such a large person be invisible?” they ask. 

I have no particularly good answers, but the passing of time tells me that invisibility often develops as a result of "visibility" being dangerous; unsafe. People "hide" their truth because their experiences with "showing themselves" have been painful.

At least that holds true for many people, although I don't directly relate to it. 

I relate more to the idea that my original “visible self” was too far removed from “societal convention” and my immediate environment... so I didn't “make sense” to those who would try to pull my strings. You could say they were like the puppetmasters, and I the puppet. Being "seen" as myself was not "appropriate," so I remained hidden for a long time, a passive participant in a show not of my own making.

I sense that many people (even those from healthy families) lose their visibility for a number of years– often beginning during grade school, and not resuming again till some kind of mid-life crisis and/or epiphany occurs. 

It starts when we're told that our "truth" doesn't fit the world, and we'd "better change, if we expect to get along." So we enter s strange "spiritual sleep" which can last for years. And then we wake up, one day, realizing that even though we want to be visible we are terribly out of practice at being so. There is a shell there, which people can see... but the essential core of who we are is like a closely guarded secret.

Social Sharing... and Community... and Belonging

Maybe sites like this one affords those who were once invisible an opportunity to open a small window to their essential self; to be visible again to like-kind spirits who feel like they might be members of their "tribe." 

Maybe the deeper truth is that below the layer of “contributing” and “writing” and “sharing” lies the more basic reality that we simply want to be visible… not merely visible, but visible to people we want to see us, not just people who glance at us and somehow judge us to be a little "off" because we're not like them.

The words and images and art we now leave are like our "beacons," carefully imbued with the qualities we feel truthfully represent us. And then placed strategically in places where we might get a hit, or two... like cosmic fishermen, waiting for a bite.

Hey!

Hey… YOU!

I see you. You are becoming visible. And since you are… instead of just moving on, with nothing to say… instead answer this:

What is your deeper reason for being here? Do you feel seen? Have you been seen? Do you want to be seen? Does it even matter to you?

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. An earlier version of this article appeared on now defunct gather.com in 2007; this revised version was created expressly for Steemit)