Under the Big Top
Clowns. Caricatures brought to life with exaggerated smiles painted on their faces whilst wearing colorfully oversized costumes. Literal sideshow animations who outwardly project humor while performing comical antics and stunts that are meant to make others laugh, meanwhile inwardly they themselves may or may not be laughing. Aerialists who swing through the air and balance on highwires while bravely performing death-dying acts, sometimes even with no net to catch them if they fall. Wild safari animals, who have been trained to walk around in circles on their hind legs and leap through rings of fire all while being whipped into submission and compliance as they are goaded and provoked by their daring handlers. The dazzling and bewildering sleight of hand of magicians who pull tricks out of hats and then, to both the horror and delight of the audience, stunningly split their scantily-clad assistant in half at the torso with a large saw, or just make her disappear altogether. And in the center, the ringleader who vociferously introduces the sometimes shocking, but always spectacular, acts to a crowd of eager spectators. All together providing approximately two hours of entertainment on a round stage inside a large tent. Welcome to the circus. Or at least that’s what the circus used to look like. Over time it has come under fire for various reasons, not the least of which being the gross mistreatment and cruelty towards animals. Now when we capture wildlife, we just entrap them inside large enclosures, create stages that mimic their natural habitats, and we call that the zoo. Millions of tickets sold each year to see wild animals wandering around behind protective glass in an otherwise unnatural setting for the purpose of providing entertainment to children of all ages. Entertainment. Over a long expanse of time and years, it would seem that many things have changed, while one thing has remained decidedly steadfast, and that is a profound need to be endlessly entertained.
Today we don’t really need to bother going to the zoo and buy tickets to see wild animals as they pace and perform inside protected enclosures. In fact, we no longer need to leave our homes at all because we now have the internet and ‘social media’ which does not necessarily involve purchasing a ticket to witness never-ending performances, but, as we have quickly learned, it does come at a cost. Nothing is free while it would seem that cheap is doubtlessly expensive. William Shakespeare famously said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.” And no truer words have ever been spoken, however, those who graced the world stage in the 16th century likely could have never imagined how far and wide that stage really stretches. Enter the main act, social media, who completely infiltrated a stage that has no visible exit points allowing it a permanent role in all current and future performances. All the world is now literally just one big giant stage and there are a lot of players. Ironically, and with the common goal to stand out and be different, all of the players have become exactly the same. As we shapeshift and transform ourselves into as many different characters as needed in order to earn the globally-recognized signal of reinforcement which is a happy face or a thumbs-up or maybe even a heart if we really like something. It would seem that the circus train, otherwise known as social media, has arrived with no scheduled date of departure. As Shakespeare said, “What’s done cannot be undone.”
So, if that’s true and it cannot be undone, then what actually constitutes entertainment these days? The answer has to be everything, while ‘anything goes’ has taken on an entirely new meaning. Some social media platforms are obviously more popular than others, but they all generally serve similar purposes. Purposes that are inherently misnomers due in large part to the inarguable fact that the distribution content is more often than not a perpetuation of lies and false representations. Through no fault of his own, Shakespeare’s “We have seen better days” is an absolute underestimation that doesn’t even skim the surface. With participation at an all-time high, and increasing exponentially, we are no longer merely spectators who are in the audience watching revolving performances unfold, because we are all now storming the stage and ruthlessly competing for the lead role. Social media has quickly become equivalent to rubbernecking as we slowly drive by a car accident to see something that we know we will later try to unsee, but we look anyway. As we cover our eyes with our hands and peek through our spread fingers so as not to miss any part of the spellbinding show, while we impatiently wait for an opportunity to jump out from behind our unveiled curtain and participate. As we fabricate our personal stories in order to create the plot twists and cliffhangers that keep our audience (also referred to as our ‘friends’ and ‘followers’) interested, leaving them no choice but to come back for more. Shakespeare said, “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” With the benefit of a limitless stage, in our own right, we have all seamlessly become actors, authors and playwrights creating fictional characters as we unabashedly participate in our own manufactured realities. 21st century purveyors of willful fraud, lies and tomfoolery conducted primarily behind the safety of a small protective glass screen.
Shakespeare said, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Which might actually be better tolerated and more palatable if we were talking about just an hour of strutting and fretting upon the stage. But it has become abundantly clear that we are not talking about a single hour. We can confirm, however, that much of what we see does, in fact, signify a whole lot of nothing. While cellphone cameras and videos everywhere are capturing reportedly candid personal tales with an objective of spontaneously memorializing reality, we quickly discover that it is an intentional ruse that illustrates nothing more than a self-serving and choreographed lie. Generations now finding comfort, and an odd sense of inclusivity, only when they are performing in front of carefully positioned cellphone cameras having become a society where mirrors, cropping, lighting and filters are more valuable than the actual content that is portrayed within the mass distributions. Oh, yes. There is, indeed, a cost for everything, begging an obvious question, and that what is the price tag that we are really willing to place on a lie?
The truth is we are willing to pay through the nose in order to see our name, or social media handle, in print on something other than a monthly invoice from a credit card company or utility bill. Social media has managed to become a multi-ring circus in its own right as it serves as not much more than a continuously evolving distraction. A vacuous escape from our own realities. Speaking of vacuous, enter from stage left the ‘Influencers’. Have you heard of them? They are everywhere and with enough shopping, product-testing, ‘selfies’ and self-described expertise on anything from Global Warming to frizz-control shampoo, they could be well on their way to their 30 seconds of fame before they know it. This flourishing career does not appear to need much of an introduction and seems to be fairly straightforward requiring no particular training or education. As a matter of fact, if you play your cards right, the education that your parents paid for will never need to be put to use. But don’t tell them that. Having a cellphone camera and can-do attitude is all it takes to do the job. That’s it. Grab your phone, a friend and anything in your closet or medicine cabinet, and you are all set. The entire world is literally your canvas. Influencers are always prepared and ready to smile and spin for the camera and will use any opportunity to simulate improvisational moments that are meant to appear to be totally unplanned and unexpected. They just happened to find themselves frolicking on a beach midday happily playing with the waves or picnicking on the sand while fully clothed in an outfit whose retailer is conveniently tagged in the subtext. Or maybe they are cruising on a bicycle with a large arrangement of flowers in the basket as they slowly glide past a perfectly graffitied building which serves as a conveniently coordinated backdrop. Without the sales pitch and companion hashtags beneath that image, it might be difficult to know what it is that the influencer is actually promoting. It could be a shirt, the bike, the building that looks like a work of art or, for all you know, it could even be hemorrhoid cream that you can’t see unless you scroll through the carousel of dumped photos. And last, but definitely not least, there are those more adventurous, over-the-top influencers, who we hear about because they may find themselves dead after trying to take a never-before-seen photo while standing on the edge of a cliff and evidently, they overestimated their multi-tasking skills. Successfully balancing themselves while simultaneously holding a selfie stick and smiling was a big ask which is why some influencers now bring along a friend to serve as their unpaid photographer. If they do manage to survive and make it off the mountain alive with the photographic and choreographed evidence of their excursion intact, and if luck continues to be on their side, they could achieve their goal of being dropped and clicked on social media newsfeeds everywhere. After all, it is in the picture which, as we have been told, is worth at least a thousand words. And it better be worth something because it is oftentimes a single image that we will rely upon to tell an entire story.
Because besides parenting, social media is the closest we have come to being a chaotic and never-ending collection of surreal-time circus acts that run continuously, with no scheduled intermissions, all in the name of entertainment. Performances that are generally predictable, yet not quite believable because they do not, no matter who is behind the curtain or lens, come from a place of authenticity and truth. Whether it is an influencer who has mastered the art of the ‘selfie’, the verified reviewer who gets paid in discounts to provide ‘honest’ reviews on anything that requires market circulation, down to the celebrity faction whose constant need for love from a large assortment of virtual strangers and fans becomes a shameless attention grab as they plunder and steal the attention away from the lesser-known influencer and reviewer. And we just keep going around and around in circles chasing after our own tails, or tales, tall or otherwise. It is not difficult to surmise that we have become relentless in our ongoing quests for attention. As we doggedly become masters of nuance and convenient stagecraft, over time the art of deception and smoke and mirrors becomes diabolically easy. The transition between truth and a lie or real and unreal is now practically undetectable. While we waste the valuable commodity of time scrolling through our newsfeeds, it is hard to not wonder when this societal shift really took hold and managed, in very short order, to become mainstreamed and normalized while forever altering the landscape of acceptable behavior. With standards and expectations that are unimpressively low as we realize that they have now become deeply rooted beneath the surface. Even knowing that Shakespeare said many centuries ago, “Expectation is the root of all heartache”, he could have in no way predicted that when we estrange ourselves from having any expectations or standards at all, we become nothing more than circus clowns who spend their time promulgating meaningless nonsense all for a cheap laugh or a rousing thumbs-up.
Because social media has given people courage that they likely would not otherwise have sans their easily penetrable armor that has been built out of nothing more than a small protective glass screen, a camera and a keyboard. Courage to say words, not through their mouths but through their fingers, that will last long after they have been spoken. Words that fester until wounds, given to us courtesy of another, become infected and spread like wildfire through our hearts and psyches because the truth is words, against all odds, have never ceased being our bond. However, those same words that were once previously considered to be a sacred representation of our truth now fall woefully short lacking luster and authenticity. Because now, thanks to social media, our words, that are mostly shot from the hip and impertinent, are preserved on our newsfeeds where they will be curated forevermore while becoming a gift that keeps on giving. It was not so long ago that we had higher expectations of ourselves, and others as well, as we endeavored to raise the proverbial bar rather than lower it. It was a time when oversharing was not commonplace and when too much information was often referred to as gossip with its primary source of distribution being word of mouth. When words were typically spoken or handwritten with pen and paper, because absent an instantaneous ‘send’ option, heartfelt sentiments and messages inherently took longer to reach their intended recipient. Today we speak in code with memes, hashtags, abbreviations, acronyms and emojis, which are really just a present-day form of prehistoric hieroglyphics. We aren’t writing important messages on the walls of caves that will be unearthed in 1,000 years. Rather, we are currently writing on a different sort of wall that is much more far-reaching as we exploit our most condensed and simplistic perspectives in real time for the primary purpose of attention and in the spirit of competition among both friend and stranger alike. ‘Anything you can do I can do better’ is the unspoken mantra that is shared by the masses, and we will spend an inordinate amount of our precious time proving it. As we become comfortable with innuendo while skillfully contradicting ourselves because although we generally want to give away the store, we still like the idea of remaining mysteriously elusive at the same time. Shakespeare said, “If we are true to ourselves, we cannot be false to anyone.” If only.
In the end, it would seem that we are due for a reckoning that will likely never come. The undeniable truth is that with the help of social media, we have simultaneously become both the circus acts and the spectators performing inside this massive tent beneath a big top. Yet unlike a circus that comes with a program of events with a beginning and an end, this current, production has no particular set of guidelines, no intermissions and no finale. And while we struggle to differentiate individuality from conformity, sense from nonsensical and fact from fiction, we collectively become nothing more than just sideshows who have found comfort in exploiting their natural instincts, along with their worst impulses, in never-ending performances that are conducted behind a small protective glass screen in our natural habitats all in the name of entertainment. That is social media, so welcome to the circus.
DISCLAIMER: All quotes were found on parade.com and are understood to be true statements referenced for the purpose of illustrating a point. Quotes have been bolded and italicized to provide a delineation from the author’s perspective.
