Mirror

​We have built the mirror we always dreamed about, and we cannot look away. 
 - Ty Burr

I love this quote and I find it terrifying. 

We've created these online lives, all of us, and they're simply mirrors. Right? Mirrors where we project the people we want to be. Mirrors where we view ourselves in the best possible light and perhaps we angle the mirrors to reflect things that aren't actually us. 

That's one story about social media trickery.

Another story is that we’re all desperately trying to really see ourselves and to show our purest and best versions. To reinvent ourselves by creating better versions online in hopes that they become true in real life. 

My naked selfie story is some combination of both of these stories. I've written about my initial inspiration for this project here. And as the months have gone on, I've pushed pretty hard to let this project evolve and deepen because it's become really important to me to make it artistic and not just a thirst trap. But that's a weird place to be with online pictures of myself.

There's a much bigger audience for easy cheesecake shots of my ass than a more difficult darker shot with text in it. It's too easy to get sucked into the shallow pool of likes and follows and comments and page views and all the other online indications of approval and attention and then start curating the site to suit the viewers.  And it's difficult to continue to post in the absence of an audience. Or to question why I do this if I'm the only one who's looking? 

But ultimately I remind myself that this social media mirror I've created is to a purpose beyond likes and attention. It's to push me to reflect on myself, how I think and how I look and the tension between online and reality. I always love my audience to weigh in on these things but the real job is mine.

Ergo I have to remember to look away from the mirror, for danger that I might begin to believe that the mirror is real life.