The more I interact with people, mostly younger than me, the more I keep asking myself: Do I really fit into this digital world?
I’m quite sure that I don’t fit in at all. I’m the kind of person who enjoys human interaction, nature, and open spaces. So why should I try to belong to something that doesn’t feel like me, something that seems imposed by society? When I look at my Instagram page, there’s nothing that truly represents who I am. How can a picture possibly express that? I don’t understand the constant need to show, to post, to pretend—to be someone we’re not. For what purpose? Just to avoid feeling left behind or like outsiders?
Last week, I had an interesting conversation with a friend about this topic. We both agreed that social media pushes us to be something different from reality, and that our true selves often don’t meet the expectations it creates. This makes us feel like “outsiders,” torn between the desire to be authentic and the fear of not fitting into society. The more we talked, the more we realized that not only do we not belong to this digital world, but we also don’t want to.
By comparing ourselves with our friends and observing their behavior, we concluded that the constant need to show and share often comes from personal insecurity, one that feeds a vicious cycle of social dependence. Most of the time, those same friends talk about the latest trends we know nothing about. Of course, this makes us feel excluded. So many interactions today are based on TikTok trends or Instagram photos. For them, it’s fascinating, they can spend hours discussing it. But we wondered: Are we actually interested in this? Or do we seek something deeper from life?
We prefer exploring the world, learning about different cultures, engaging in real human interaction, and discussing geopolitics. We don’t really care about TikTok trends. So yes, I can consider myself an outsider in this digital world. But what’s sad is that as technology advances, we may have no choice. Social media is now part of everyday life—either we keep up, or we risk being cut off from society.
It’s ironic that while humans created technology to improve our lives, we now live in a society where the most discussed topics are media trends rather than how political decisions are shaping our futures. Following this line of thought, I remain hopeful that future generations will recognize the dangers of social media addiction, for both mental health and society as a whole, and will take action to prevent further harm.
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