Alte/ar

One of my favorite movies is Satoshi Kon's 1997 film "Perfect Blue", which is about a young idol who retires to pursue an acting career. Her life becomes so parallel to the show she is acting in that it almost starts to mix, and it's very hard for the audience to tell by the end what is her reality and what is not. There's too much context to fully explain the film, but one of the posters for it is a shattered mirror with her and another her in a red dress. 

Weirdly enough, I can relate to some of those feelings. Sometimes, it feels like I am not myself, especially in photos of myself. I look at the photos I post on my social media and it almost feels like it's this fantasy of myself that I'm trying to pass off as me. So in that way, I think many people in my generation can relate to "Perfect Blue" and this fragmentation of our identities. We go online and see others posting the best of their lives, the flawless moments, and we wonder why we can't have the same or look the same. And we've grown up on that, so it's normal and expected. We should all have another persona that we want to be seen as online. The reality behind this second life we pretend to live is that no one is really doing all that well, and that comparison is the thief of joy and your sanity.