In the wonderful bookstore Librairie Mollat in Bordeaux, I came across Guy Debord’s La Société du spectacle. I’ve heard of this book before somewhere and had a very vague idea of what it was about. I bought the book and have been working my way through the book slowly — first it’s in French and then it’s a little dense.
Debord argues that in the current world (the western world at least) where production is abundant and people no longer struggle to survive, it’s changing society to be a “spectacle”. The identity of people changes. In the past, it’s more about direct lived experiences, their skills and relationships but it has become more about owning things, then it’s about appearances. Owning is not enough. It has to be shown off. It’s about the curated image of a good life. One’s hobbies, interests, vacations are no longer simply a lived experience. They become part of a performance and the meaning of their lives needs to be validated. Life has become less authentic and less free. People become performers and they perform their life instead of directly experiencing it.
I haven’t finished the book and I’m not satisfied with my attempt to summarize. Go read the book if that sounds like an interesting book to you. I have been thinking about the meaning of it all recently because I have more time at hand now. This book is a timely read. Obviously I thought about Instagram and my desire to post travel photos there. My desire to travel the world started when I was a kid, long before I was aware what’s the image of a “world traveler” and it had nothing to do with seeking validation. But that doesn’t mean when I post travel photos now, I’m not actually doing exactly that — seeking validation of some sort or showing off a kind of a “good life”. I think it’s only human to do that sort of things and most people do that more or less. But does that distract from our lived experiences? Does posting things on Instagram prevent me from fully enjoying a city? For me, the unfortunate answer is yes. It prevents me from being fully present with my surroundings. When I spend time snapping a photo and posting on Instagram, I get pulled away from reality. It gets worse if you start to think “would this make a good instagram story?” in your daily life. It does contribute to the success of Meta. We all work for Meta for free in a sense. We’re all part of a program, together we put on a show. Are you ready to show up for today’s Stories? Are you ready to consume it?
How much of our life has become some kind of a performance, and how much authenticity is left? I haven’t made much progress on meaning of life thus far, but I do know I want to live my life instead of performing it.