I’m thinking about the progression of social media from a timeline in which recorded events are semi-permanent. Of course you’ve already manipulated the truth of these events prior to posting and you can delete them at any point so unless someone has done a screen capture they fade from memory. The idea though was to present an consistent representation of your self and your life that was semi-longterm.

Now with Instagram and Snapchat stories you aren’t even committed to your own history. You present events more or less as they happened (with manipulation) and they disappear. It’s as if they never happened.

But you still record them and present them.

Why?

What’s the appeal? Is it because you don’t have to commit to the representation of yourself? I don’t really understand the attraction at all. It’s not like a Youtube video or a Facebook timeline entry that people can return to again and again.

I don’t even understand why I’ve recorded so much, beyond that I must require the same validation of my existence as anyone else.

If something happens and I don’t record it on social media, did it every really happen? I mean, of course it did. But now if I make it hyper-temporary, what’s the point of recording it at all? The irony is staggering. People are not only erasing their true identity with social media but they’re erasing their temporary identity. They’re erasing the very idea of identity.

Of course I might be making far too much of it all.