I recently watched a video by John Green of the vlogbrothers and he was talking about how everything that we see on social media has been framed by the person who posted it.
Social media provides us the opportunity to give the appearance of being "put together". We can put on display the truths or non-truths we would like the world to see and believe. But if we are claiming that what we post is the authentic us - because I believe that for some people that is the truth, I know that it is for me, that what we share is authentically us - but in the midst of those who are not anything like their online portrayal... is this creating authenticity as a myth instead of fact?
Sure we get to pick and choose through numerous things as to what we will share. And for the record, I am not saying that you need to share everything - because no. There are plenty of things that do not need to be on social media. Things are personal and private for a reason. What I am speculating here is whether or not it is easy to tell if the person who posted the content is being authentic. And what does it look like to be authentic on the internet? What does it look like to be authentic in face-to-face conversation? Is there a way to help those two things match?
Authenticity helps with forming relationships. I don't know of a single person who likes to maintain a relationship of any kind with a fake person. It can be challenging. It can be scary. But I think it's worth it to be authentic. There will be people who will respond negatively, but there will also be people who respond positively. Or no one will pay any attention at all. But ultimately it's worth it because it's less stress on you. Being authentic doesn't mean that you're spilling your guts out. It just means that there isn't a difference from one scene to another.