Social Media, Is It 'That' Social?

Imaginary proposition is where friends or user accounts in the social media are more attractive and sociable than the real ones. This imaginary condition is yielded by the term social media itself. 

Friends or people who are not present in person are a matter preference. People choose who are communicable and inconversable through the platform like Facebook or Twitter. And social media filter bubble algorithm worsens this deliberate social preference.

People prone to share their current emotional state or condition to users account labelled as 'friends or followers'. In their mind, the nonexistence friends are real friends to hear and see our suffering, happiness, and even boredom. And this imaginary proposition is what actually social media emphasizes. 

Further, imaginary proposition is amplified by the use of photo tagging and emoticon. Sharing special moments or places are the accepted ways to become social. And for friends or followers, the photo tagging feature is priceless. Tagged in a friend's graduation photo is an exclusive feeling one could undergo. 

While the emoticon or emoji is the way to share and represent the feeling to friends or followers. Thousands types of emoticon are available. Some social media platform add stickers to personalized expression. These stickers are bigger and lush with color and character portraying our emotion. 

These emoji or stickers are as imaginable as our existence oneself in the timeline. The illusion of interacting as human being is merely depicted with photos, emoji, stickers, and now stories. 

While the sensing proposition is the actually five-senses involvement in interacting between people. When we chat face to face, we actually involve our five senses. 

Sight is for seeing our friends' facial expression and eye contacts. Hearing is to hear and discern the real and hidden message in our friends' speech. Olfactory is to smell and remember, if any, our friends special fragrance or bodily odor. 

Touch is the medium to embrace the emotion as we hug or hold our crying friends. And taste is to taste and remember our friends favorite food or beverages. However, this proposition tries to be replaced by the social media interaction. 

Social gesture like giving like/hearts, comment, or share are common ways user reach out each others. But do we really see our friends' smiling and happy face when they put smile on their comment on our post? 

Are We 'That' Social Now?