“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,” wrote William Shakespeare. Indeed, the world has always been a stage. It continues to be one today, full of players absorbed in their assigned characters. The question here is not whether they are good players, but whether they are aware of themselves performing.
Imagine yourself watching a live theatre performance, focusing on all the players, music, decorations, and costumes. But what if you are one of them, and your role is watching the others play? Now try to answer whether you are watching or performing. Performing something subconsciously, that only a part of you recognises while the rest remains unaware. Well, the situation of most of us at present is not much different from that. The situation, in fact, was never much different from that.
Throughout history, we have been trained to conduct ourselves in accordance with our audience. Our private lives differ largely from how we behave in public. This equation applies to all: kings, queens, judges, teachers, actors and whatnot. No matter what kind of role we are assigned, we play it until the boundary between the play and real life becomes grey. In simple words, we behave differently when we are being watched; it is like performing on a stage. We have always acted in such a manner. Nonetheless, the performers in the past played in front of people only and spared time to reflect upon their existence.
However, today’s performances are not only in front of people but also in front of screens. For both the audiences, visible and virtual, we keep performing. Social media has transformed and expanded the stages. We post, upload, share, and watch our fellows and strangers constantly. Actively engaged in the lives of strangers, we watch their photos, reels and daily life vlogs. We know the names of their pets, their favourite cuisines, and even their Netflix preferences are not unique to us. Similarly, being a part of this over-sharing public life, we post stories and keep our circles updated about the twists and turns in our lives as well. Nevertheless, somewhere in this cycle, we forget ourselves and continuously perform the roles assigned to us. In the struggle of performing these roles that are expected, or simply imposed on us, we tend to lose the thread of ‘who we really are’. Thus putting in question the authenticity of our existence in general. Leaving our existence with the question of ‘whether it is our authentic self on display or we are behaving differently like an electron under observation’. (Much like quantum physics explains the change in behaviour of particles under observation)
All the logical explanations suggest one crystal clear conclusion: that in today’s world of screens, we are constantly performing rather than being our true selves. We are performers, and the audience is everyone around us. Jean Paul Sartre’s idea of ‘gaze’ enters the picture here. Sartre argues that when we are seen by others, we become conscious of ourselves as objects in their eyes. Hence, distorting our sense of authenticity. Returning to the main question, what exactly is that performance? Well, it is nothing but trying to present the most polished, happy, and successful version of ourselves. In simple terms, we are trying to perform the roles of the digital self, or digital identities that we build. These are mainly inspired by influencers and public figures online. Gradually, we act and
behave accordingly. Hence forming a digital self that is distant from our real lives. It does not necessarily mean we are fake online; however, it does impact our true identity in a way, as it distracts us from finding our true selves. Leading us to what Sartre labelled as ‘bad faith ‘. Where we hide behind a role and pretend to lack a choice.
Adding to these layers, digital versions represent only a part of people’s lives, giving the impression of peace, happiness, and attaining the ideal lifestyle. By comparing that carefully designed digital life with our lifestyle, and also trying to keep up with our digital identity of a perfect life, we throw ourselves into a situation of constant comparison and chasing something only partly real.
To determine whether one is a victim of this public performance culture, one must ask: if I wasn’t being watched, would I still choose the same life? Are my choices for myself or merely to build an identity in people’s minds, to appeal to them and see myself through their eyes? If our answer to this mirrors our present life choices, we are living true to ourselves and not merely performing for the audience.
However, as rare as it may be, in order to attain that authenticity, we need not erase those digital versions entirely. As a person can always have different layers of personality. However, we must not fall into the illusion of perfection of virtual lives as well. What we must do instead is to be true to ourselves in order not to lose, forget, or exhaust our authentic self. We must be in contact with our inner self to obtain peace. That authentic self or ‘being’ can be hard to find; however, it’s a risk worth taking. We may be good players, knowing the art of performing, but we must be good in our minds as well. Following our innate thoughts like a moth follows light. Perhaps those thoughts can lead the way towards the ‘whole self’. Meanwhile, we can keep performing and acting in public life, but it shouldn’t be the purpose of our lives. We must not forget our authentic selves. Not losing ourselves in the crowd of holograms and subsequently attaining the state of ‘being’ to avoid ‘angst ‘. Ultimately, this state of ‘being’ is entirely subjective; hence everyone chooses a path unique to themselves. This eradicates herd mentality and rat races in general. Eventually, this makes us able to be, as Henley said in Invictus, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”