Is there REALLY such a thing as “Candid” anymore? To me, the word conjures thoughts of photos or videos that are unrehearsed and “in the moment,” to the extent that such things can be. I think of the old show Candid Camera, in which peoples’ natural reactions to odd or funny situations were recorded for everyone’s entertainment.

Today, most of our lives are recorded, to some extent, on various social media platforms. Using these platforms, we can present ourselves in whatever light we choose. We hand-select the pictures that appear, and censor any personal information we deem unbecoming. We have access to apps that will alter our self images, making them thinner, blemish-free, taller or tanner. Our bad hair days are removed from virtual reality, if not from actual non-alternative reality.

In the process of airbrushing our very lives, however, I worry that we are in the early stages of evolving toward complete inauthenticity and away from true connectedness. Under the instant perceived magnification of the world, what are we doing to ourSELVES and our self images? Because I strongly suspect that the damage we’re doing transcends, in scope and multidimensional exhaustiveness, that done by the magazines I was raised with, in which an outside hand airbrushed the images to certain standards unattainable by myself and millions of others… I can’t help but wonder how many of us would trade our true, unbroadcast imperfect lives for the ones we carefully craft and portray on social media.

And, if our social media networks are genuinely microcosms of our real worlds, then there are good parts along with the bad; organizing groups, creating support networks, fundraising for good causes, maintaining contact with loved ones; all of which can happen regardless of geographical distance. Our worlds and our resources can be beautifully broadened by technology. Or, they can be turned into nothing more than a comparison to other engineered realities, and we will always find ourselves lacking. We may start to converge on a common prototype (or prototypes) of what is perceived to be desirable to our followers, losing ourselves in the process, becoming something else we were never meant to be.

I think the answer, or at least part of it, lies in our own abilities to filter what is truly supportive, empowering, and authentic to our beings from that which is not. It lies in our awareness of, and willingness to, BLOCK that which is diminishing to our unique potential, whether we do it literally or metaphorically.