Social Media: Once Upon a Swipe

One remembers that some primitive peoples feared being photographed because they thought the camera would make off with their souls. That notion may have prefigured dating in today’s social media world: soulless images uploaded to interact with other soulless images as the real souls are left out to dry, becoming mere residue in this virtual carnival world of the contemporary mating dance.

The idea of a character becomes imprisoned in an image, whether in the form of a picture or of a calculated narrative. The root power at play is one of projection. The mind needs its illusions. Applied to the dating world, a projected image hangs out there awaiting judgment, often rendered by way of an instantaneous left/right swipe reflex. Nothing personal. It’s not you, it’s your facade. You know, it’s just a numbers game.

We welcome to the discussion Aude-Olivia, a relationship coach who assists clients as they seek out the heart amongst the numbers. She has chronicled her personal experiences in "Once Upon A Swipe" with a view to assist others navigate their digital dating life. Aude invites us to come back to the truth of our heart as we seek to re-integrate romance into the digital world.

The myth-making associated with images transcends social media and the dating world, of course. One thinks of the story of a mother walking with her child. A stranger exclaims, "What a lovely girl!" The mother replies, "That's nothing, you should see her picture!”

The problem with much of social media in general lies in the way it has exploited its addictive power and our own egocentricity in the most cynical of ways. Founders and early investors are themselves coming around to recognizing social media's dark side in the way it damages the very soul (link: The End Of the Social Era). The primitives could have told them that.