Living an Unfiltered Life
I have recently been pondering about life, perspective and how to see the world from hopefully unbiased ways. I’m not the first one to note that our experiences make us who we are and that we will also have an inherent bias on how the world is perceived. The idea for this post came to me as a recurring theme of filters, the damages of social media to society and the overall sentiment of unhappiness and even agression towards technology and social media.
First let’s start with filters. Until very recently, I would say until about a few weeks ago really I felt strongly against photo filters or any augmentation, or modification to pictures. In fact, I went as far as saying that any photographer who modified their photos was no photographer at all. That faking their way through their lens was cheating themselves, society and their customers. I make the reference to photo enhancements and filters but deep down this concept applies to our lives too. You can think of living the pure, unfiltered life as doing everything as you see fit. To a degree being selfish and not being concerned with how others think or feel. Just living your life according to your reality.
Like a camera, your eyes and the interpretation of what you see are driven by your components or in a human sense your experiences. The photographic sensor, the quality of the lens, the length of the exposure and whether not you use flash. It can mean your perception of what is right or wrong based on what you have seen, how long you hold on to good and bad moments and how much you want to highlight the imperfections or attributes life has to offer. In short, you can go about life photographing through your viewfinder and filtering out everything but your perspective. Always capturing your shots in the same way, always tilting the camera to the same angle and centering the objects in the same position. I’m sure that would be extremely rewarding but is that your best self? Is it necessary to make all mistakes on your own or learn how to perceive things through another person’s lens?
Social media (especially Instagram) is full of things that some may be scared or repulsed by but that also inspire and excite millions of people. Filters, picture angles modifications and other camera tricks can in fact affect one’s psychology, but what if they also offered a new perspective on the people behind them. What if advertising their accomplishments was not a way to make other feels miserable but a way to do positive reinforcement of their successes? What if selectively sharing became a way to stay focus on goals and combat internal doubts?
As I have mentioned before I’m fascinated by technology. It’s both humbling and scary that after typing on a few keys I can express what 15 minutes ago was a vague idea from a passive thought to something that can reach potentially everyone who has access to an internet connection. I’m confident about the power of technology if used to truly connect with people at a human level and how it can make a major difference for tomorrow, so should you.
