Is Being Genuine Obsolete?

Does phoniness irritate you?

Are you disillusioned by false people?

Are you upset by sarcasm?

You may need to get used to it. Authenticity seems to be obsolete.

Bloggers learn it’s vital to be authentic.
Be yourself.
Be unique.

The competition for readership is fierce, but if you remain unique, you will resonate with readers, and you’ll find an audience.

True or false?

Discoveries I made this summer made me rethink the value of authenticity.

Which is Better Authenticity or Inaccuracy?

Instagram:
I questioned why my daughter didn’t have an Instagram account. If she did, we could follow each other and stay connected wherever her career lands her.
She responded by letting me know that people on Instagram aren’t unique. They give an illusion of having perfect lives.

Is it true? Does Instagram contribute to a society that’s losing sincerity?

Lil Miquela, the Instagram bot, has 3 million followers. Do people know she’s a bot? Of course! Miquela describes herself as a bot in her bio.

Filtersr
Next, both advantages and disadvantages of Instagram include Instagram’s filters. While being engaging, they give people illusions. For instance, one of Instagram’s filters turns you into an alien and another Instagram filter has you shooting electricity.

Related Reading: https://www.mostlyblogging.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-instagram/

Fake Instagram Posts
“Fake Instagram posts?” Are you even kidding me? Oh, the horror.

No. This goes way too far. My discovery of fake Instagram posts sent me on a quest to battle insincerity.

People actually steal other Instagrammer’s posts with an excessive number of likes and pass them off as their own.
Did anyone know about this besides me?

It turns out the PicsArt company uses its tool’s ability to create fake Instagram posts as a marketing point!
Imagine my shock when I discovered teachers make fake Instagram posts to teach students how to use social media.

Teachers even require students to create fake Instagram posts too!
Is my angst rising? Let’s keep going.

Related Reading: https://www.mostlyblogging.com/instagram-post-generator/

Pinterestr
In my first years as a blogger, I took my own photos believing stock photos were cheesy because they were, well, stock photos.

Then I came to realize stock photos were better than my original photos because they lacked the imperfections of the photos I took.

Do I still use stock photos?

Lately, I go straight to Pinterest and use a Pinterest downloader. A Pinterest downloader enables me to download other people’s images, for free, without repercussion. I’m not even required to give source credit, although, of course, I do.

While Pinterest doesn’t allow you to download videos, 3rd-party tools allow you to download videos. I recently discovered many video hosting sites are this generous. Again, with the mere hope that people will cite source credit instead of being brazen and trying to pass other people’s images and videos off as their own.

Related Reading: https://www.mostlyblogging.com/pinterest-downloader/

Fake Zip Codesr
Fake zip codes? Who would want one? You’ll never get your mail.
Apparently, scriptwriters need to generate fake zip codes to add (gulp) authenticity to their writing.
People without a zipcode required to write one need fake zip codes too.

Related Reading: https://www.mostlyblogging.com/random-zip-code/

Memesr
Bloggers, YouTubers, and other social media users are on a mission for virality. The secret to what makes content goes viral is as old as… Well, it’s old.

Did I make a funny?

Humor contributes to the degree of success. If you want your content to stand a chance at going viral, make it funny.

However, you need to make your content funny with a degree of truth. Your content will resonate and at the same time amuse others.

Often, self-deprecating memes aren’t funny; they are just sad.

Rick Harrison, star of Pawn Stars, has a self-deprecating expression, “That’s the Best I Can Do.” People found it funny! It became a popular meme!

Be
ie Sanders was freezing at the 2020 Presidential Inauguration, so he wore a warm, comfortable outfit. Instead of feeling bad that he was so cold, people were amused and the photo became a meme.

You can read my research about the content I would have guessed would generate sorrow that actually generated amusement here: https://www.mostlyblogging.com/best-i-can-do-meme/

Sarcasm on Redditr
If sarcasm contains at least 10% of truth, that means sarcastic comments can be 90% phony.

The Reddit BlogSnark subreddit is devoted to sarcasm. A whole subreddit devoted to sarcasm? What next?
Related Reading: https://www.mostlyblogging.com/reddit-vs-quora/

Wrapping Upr
Should I have titled this post “The Downsides of Authenticity” or “The Downsides of a Society That Doesn’t Value Authenticity and Possibly Never Did”?

The truly sad part is I doubt whether this is new or I’m just late in discovering this deterioration in the representation of truth.

I maintain society is losing authenticity. This insincerity is not just relegated to social media sites.
Tools, in general, are contributing to the lack of authenticity.

This article cited these examples: Instagram filters, media downloaders, fake social media posts, fake zip code generators, and meme generators.
What will be next? I am both curious and dismayed.