I am an introvert which means I dread large group social situations, but thrive in one on one conversations. However, to my disappointment, these one on one conversations are dying due to a spreading illness: social media addiction. I have been wondering why social media has become so valuable to the human species and over my last couple of interactions with people the realization hit me; it is more daunting than I expected.

I love carpooling with people because there are only so many seats in the car and therefore the automobile constructs an environment perfect for an introverted individual. On multiple occasions I’ve driven with people I’ve been eager to open up a conversation with, but have hesitated to continue when their responses begin with a pause and a drawn out "Ummmm." I would look over to the passenger seat and of course see them diddling on their phone scrolling through social media. I have accepted that this is what society has come to, but lately people’s behavior has been more telling. When I do stuff with people I’m constantly asked to take pictures of them and then forced to patiently sit and wait while they post to Facebook or attach cute remarks to Snapchat stories. I have watched myself and many of friends fall victim to this behavior. I mean have you ever been excited about doing something just so you can brag about it on social media? Instead of being excited for the reality, it seems people are more excited for the social construction of their virtual self. That leads us to the daunting part.

Our lives are audience oriented. This means that what we do is a performance to showcase to the world. Our society is geared towards entertainment, so much so, that everyone has become an entertainer. We have even become entertainers to ourselves! We are constantly watching our lives unfold on a screen! With social media there is this false notion that people who have an audience have the most fulfilling life; that their lives must be interesting or important because people pay attention to their daily postings and tweets; that they should be put on a pedestal because they have a voice society tells us we need to develop. However, joke's on us! As the comedian Bo Burnham shares in his Netflix original "Make Happy" “Social media is just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded to perform so the market said here, perform everything to each other all the time for no reason.” To live life with an audience is to live life void of the self, void of authenticity, void of reality. In this generation the rarest moments are the ones that no one knows about, but you. Cherish that secrecy and make life your own again. Live life without an audience.

These thoughts have made me reflect on my own life and, to my dismay, I am living with an audience! The irony of it is that this is an Odyssey article which means my success is dependent on the number of shares this article receives. Therefore, I try to write to get the most attention, I have shared articles on multiple mediums, and I constantly check to see my articles’ popularity. Honestly, one can not get much more audience oriented than that! I say live life without an audience, but I am a hypocrite. It seems life is dependent on the approval and attention from others. How do we escape an audience oriented life? Can one be successful in society without an audience? Or does removing oneself from an audience also mean removing oneself from society?