I'm Ready for My Close Up, Mr. DeMille

Are we as interesting as we think we are?

This is a question I've been asking myself of late as I roam around the social media world posting quips, comments, snarkis and photos. It's made me aware of how others chronicle their lives, especially on Facebook.

In the old time days before phones had cameras that posted immediately to Facebook, we would take pictures of our vacations by shooting photos of things we were seeing. Then, we would subject friends, relatives, neighbors, anyone willing to sit for an hour, to slide "shows" or albums of the pictures from the vacation. "Hey look, there's a drive-thru tree! There's Mickey! There's a giant ball of string! There are two zebras at the zoo. It must be spring!" It was all about capturing things we were seeing. Things other than ourselves, for the most part.

Now that we've advanced to the digital age of sharing way too much way too soon, it's more about "Hey, there's me! Look, there I am again. Here's a picture of me standing in front of something. Here's a picture of me eating something. Here's picture of me running from the zebras who clearly didn't want to be disturbed."

Have we become the "Me Generation" where we think the most interesting thing we can share is ourselves? Sometimes, I wonder. There's a poster among my Facebook friends that we'll call Mr. X. Mr. X went to visit San Francisco and then posted an album from his trip. What did he post? Coit Tower? The Golden Gate Bridge? The Transamerica Pyramid? Well, actually not. He posted pictures of himself in his hotel room. "Look, it's me!" Why would anyone want to see any of the other sights?

Perhaps it's the infusion of Reality TV into our lives. Anyone can be on television and be elevated from a face in the crowd to a real star. Stars don't have to be a Harrison Ford-type from a big movie. They can be the video store clerk that finds herself just trying to survive for one more episode on a reality show and cling to stardom just five minutes longer. They can also be someone who is famous for being famous. A Hilton, a Kardashian or someone else who is famous for being on camera, but has not actually done anything to actually be famous for. It's a little mind bending when you think about it. Why are they famous? Because, they are. If that's the case, then, guess what, you too can be famous for being famous if you can get yourself out there enough. Maybe that's what some folks are shooting for on Facebook and other sites. "Look, it's me again and guess what I'm doing in this picture..." It's not YouTube. It's MeTube.

Are we arrogant, conceited, delusional...or, is this just the new normal? Everyone in effect has their own broadcast channel and instead of getting together for a glass of wine to share our adventures in person, we just tune into each others' channels to see what we are all up to. And, does that make our worlds larger or smaller? Which captures the greater adventure, the picture your parents took of the Grand Canyon when they visited in 1972 or the image you just posted to show how unbelievably long the line is at Starbucks right now? Perhaps because it is now so easy to chronicle mediocre activities, we are not pushing ourselves to have real adventures to share.

I'd ponder this more, but I need to go Instagram an image of myself typing this blog. Exciting stuff!