Don’t you feel we are living in a fake world. More and more we are surrounded by everything that seems fake, unreal, too modified, too flawless, too good to be true, and the list goes on. I am not exaggerating. I promise you that. Look around you.

Take a moment to stop and notice a typical day. Observe everything you encounter. From people you meet, to what you listen to or watch, to your social media feed, to day-to-day interactions, to the selfies you take by yourself using filters, to photoshopped photos and videos using an editing software, to the picture-perfect life most people present in front of the world, especially social media, to the fake grass in the backyard, to fake trees inside houses or malls, to man-made islands, and a lot of man-made / man-modified everything.

Do you still think I am exaggerating? If you do.

Believe me, I am not at all happy writing these words. I feel sad describing our current reality. The questions that keep arising: ‘Is this really what life is like now?’ – ‘What happened to humanity?’ – ‘What happened to us?’

I don’t have an answer for you. I can tell you this, it’s a combination of many things together that got us to this point.

For starters, we are constantly evolving. That’s our nature. We are growing every minute of every day in knowledge and innovation. We are creative beings. That is our innate quality. We are constantly in search of something better. Unfortunately, and fortunately at times, we don’t know when to stop. We are hungry for more – always. At least this is my personal opinion. You may beg to differ and that’s totally respected.

I feel that humanity’s hunger for more is one of the main reasons of its downfall. Of course, it is great to aspire for more and find better ways to do things. Of course, change is part of our evolution and growth as species. If a virus can evolve itself, humans can’t?

Change is inevitable and it’s something we all struggle with even though it is a fact of life that we have come to know as we grow older. When we are younger, we kind of wish everything to stay the same, yet we are so excited for tomorrow and what it will bring our way. We are in a hurry to grow up, finish school and be an adult to live freely. Yet we struggle with the major shifts that take place in our personal world. While all of this is going on, the external world is changing at a rapid speed. We feel overwhelmed at times, unable to cope with those changes that are out of our control.

The Technology world is probably the most overwhelming one. The older generations can vouch for how it evolved in what seems to be a blink of an eye. The younger generations may not be able to grasp this, as they didn’t live through it. What they have and see now is all they know. They can’t even imagine what life would be like without phones or internet. Some can’t imagine life that didn’t have x-box or play-station.

At the same moment, the older generations are wishing if they could only go back to that time where life was simpler, people were nicer, it was safer, kids were playing in the yard and climbing trees, this sensitivity and walking on eggshells watching every word you say in case it is offensive to somebody or inappropriate, or considered racist or sexist or plainly just not acceptable.

As much as we can admit that life changed to the better in a lot of ways, we can also have the courage to admit, it changed to the worse in other ways.

This fakeness that we live in today is just a little too much. And I am not from an old generation. Neither am I from the young generation. I am kind of in between, where I am able to be objective and see both sides clearly. I understand the benefits of the technology world. I believe most of the inventions and innovations are great tools for us to use. I am using a device to type these words, not a typewriter. I can save the document and in a short time, it will be up in the cloud where anyone in the world can have access to it. Wow. Right?

But why do we need to add filters to our faces so we can look flawless, and post it on social media. What is the real message behind this? Why has the world taken to this as the new ‘Norm?’ Let me share my personal thoughts with you.

It’s about the attachment to perfection and caring a little too much about our image, and other people’s opinion of us, more than our own self-worth and self-acceptance. It’s about competition of who is better looking, richer, living a more fun life, even if it’s all fake. It’s about a construed view of what beauty it. It’s about the denial of who we are and becoming addicted to becoming something we are not in order to fit in the ‘fake’ society we live in. It’s about filing our self-esteem because truly we are not impressed with who we are or what we have to offer to the world by simply being in it.

Some deep thoughts – right? Don’t even get me started on AI. I won’t get into it in this article anyway. But seriously, I am concerned with where this is heading. I see the benefits of having the tools. Don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking it down. I am amazed by it. But damn, place this tool in the wrong hands and watch what it will do.

I can’t get into everything that is ‘fake’ around us or this article will go on forever.

I am speaking to you from the heart here. I am just another person who is living this life, watching the world change and evolve, as I too, change and evolve. I don’t claim to be perfect or that I haven’t fallen into the attachment of looking perfect. I have used filters, but mainly for fun. I am happy to post a picture of the real me without filters, without make up even. I just so happen to like dressing up. I am comfortable in my own body. As I gained weight, lost it, looked really thin at times. That’s life and the effects of life and also the result of my choices, including diet choice, habits of eating and drinking, exercising and being mindful. I make a conscious choice every day to be the person I am.

Everyone has that freedom of choice. What do you choose? To be yourself? Or to copy everyone so you can fit in? To use the technology at your disposal for the good or the bad? To live an authentic life or a fake one? To be real or not to be real? If only Shakespeare was alive today – I wonder what he would think about that?