What is something most think is real but is really fake?

Ah yes, the power couple. My ex loved showing off our life on social media. Behind closed doors it was chaotic and violent. When we broke up everyone was stunned because they thought we were so perfect. But don't be too quick to point your finger at these people and label them as completely self absorbed - other people are consumers of social media and are just as guilty for participating. When people comment and wait for updates, you start feeling compelled to share more and it can snowball faster than you could imagine. We just happened to have a good DSLR camera and friends that were photographers, so it quickly got out of hand and everyone always wanting to know what we were up to. We're also pretty fit, so we thought we were creating connections, adding value and motivating people. But we were really just feeding them social media junk food. There was little meaningful substance.

I hated it but almost felt obliged to keep posting. It was an addiction and there were no rewards, just compulsion and misery. I was so happy to break up, stay off social media and create a lot of well needed space. We eventually worked our differences out and are on social media again, but our relationship is only between us, we only post things which are positive and create some form of meaning or value, and have vowed to not share any personal or relationship details on social media moving forward.

Social media is intriguing and has can create a lot of impressions on people - some good, but many not so good. It's important to be mindful of the impression you leave with others and reflect on whether that impression is aligned with your intentions or not.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent