Modern Day Illusions

We live in Bizzaro World these days, unveiling one ugly truth after another, being bombarded daily with news of injustice, corruption and cruelty— only to have our valid shock and anger crumpled between two scrolls of laughter and material aspiration. On the other hand our digital experience, that has dominated our day to day lives, is getting flooded with AI “content” further blurring our sense of what is real and what is valuable.

One could argue though that the greater danger to our perception is a series of illusions that have creeped into our lives somewhere between emojis and Forbes lists. Let’s break them down one by one.

Illusion of information

Twitter —now X— has drastically changed how we get our information on both global and local developments. Information is now spreading faster and citizen journalism has bypassed traditional media journalism. Or perhaps it has not. Do we get quickly on the ground information? Yes, but we also have an army of bots and the all-mighty algorithm manipulating that. On the other hand mass media have found a lazy way to fill in digital space by reproducing social media buzz as the priority has shifted from investigative reporting to clicks. Of course there is only so deep you can go in a social media post by a witness (and that is— allegedly a witness) without complimenting that with on ground journalism and in depth investigation. What we’ve seen in recent times—especially with the tragic events unfolding in Gaza and the unselfish, brave work of journalists like — Bisan Owada, Wael Dahdouh and Oren Ziv is the importance of local journalism, which is under immense economic pressure.

Illusion of community

From Facebook Groups, to Hashtags, to influencers telling us how much they love us and how much we mean to them, all this has contributed in developing a sense of digital belonging. Social media has enabled us to connect with people across the world, rally to support for common goals and strangers in trouble, but it has also taken away our energy from real-world communities, like unions, clubs, church, etc, that may not always feel like 100% “our tribe”. But when push comes to shove, and we need to stand up to injustice shoulder to shoulder or claim what’s right, our local community’s voice is more powerful that any Kim K post. Of course this is not meant as an aphorism for social media, just a reminder that real world ties and community structure should be valued and protected as you never know which billionaire will be able to simply hit delete for your social media based community tomorrow.

Illusion of creativity

Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way on week 4 challenges her readers to experiment with a week of media deprivation as she feels media consumption can work sort of like a band aid, satisfying temporarily our need for creativity without actually being creative. A challenging dare you should try even for couple of days. Also, although posting on social media feels creative, sooner or later it devolves into a chase of views and likes, while the insatiable nature of the algorithm removes pushes us to surrender to ease instead of embracing creative struggle and growth.

Illusion of independence

I remember back in high school the hot topic for essays was urban alienation and how the promise of an online world could breathe new life to the countryside and enable us to work from anywhere, including our hometowns to elevate local tight-knit communities. However that’s not exactly how things went down. In contrary we’ve built startup hubs in major cities and the remote workers or solo entrepreneurs instead of moving to the countryside they’ve moved to poorer countries with the glamorous title expat, uprooting local population instead of setting roots to revitalize the countryside of their countries. Of course it’s a more complicated issue, and not all is bad, but glamorisation of not being able to afford leaving in your own country as a freelancer and the traveler-washing is something to be mindful of.

Illusion of choice

Much like in the supermarket you have the illusion of choice when it comes to coffee, when in reality you choose the coffee of only 4-5 big corporations, in the same way although having the sense we are exposed to many different viewpoints, the algorithm locks us up in echo chambers for “our best experience”. Similarly when platforms like Netflix came along I was thrilled I could have access to world cinema, but instead although we have directors and actors from all over the world the decision makers have the same narrow scope, taking away the individual flair of each culture’s entertainment industry as beautifully illustrated by this brilliant campaign by Alliance Française.

Illusion of connection

A few years back I decided to individually message all my Facebook friends to catch up on what’s new— to really catch up. And although I’ve been always liking, commenting their posts, once we chatted I got huge revelations about major life updates good and bad. So although I was “following” their lives and felt I was in the loop, in reality I did not. It made me feel a bit inadequate as a friend and promised myself to do better, although friends I’m aware I have not. In the same way dating platforms have been a dupe for flirting, chats a dupe for heart-to-hearts with friends and comments a dupe for arguments at the family dinner. Always close but never enough.

So what’s the path forward? Getting tied like Odysseus to our life’s mast whether that’s our loved ones or our art so we can enjoy the Siren’s songs, but not get carried away? Use a shield to look the Medussa in the eye like Perseus, limiting our direct use of social media? Or succumb to our illusions like Hercules? It’s up to you to decide who’s the hero you have within.