examine and represent individuals’ lack of authenticity
on social media

solution

development of the concept of ‘virtually me’ an unsettling juxtaposition of reality and its manipulated representation on social media

execution in highly visual print, ‘cinema verite’ style film denoting manipulation and loneliness, and photography using a self styled tryptic to represent the extremes of the sharded self

use of

an identification of five social media ‘conventions’ that drive a lack of authenticity
– the sharded self – the construction of an inauthentic social media identity, the ‘exaggerated’ self, far removed from the true or hidden self 
– it’s all about me – the search for validation through social media, ‘selfies’ and ‘likes’ 
– parallel worlds – the differentiation between online
and offline lives 
– alone together – the story of friends and ‘followers’ versus authentic intimacy 
– anxieties – the story of comparisons, ‘netiquette’, stalking, fear of missing out (fomo)

in print, highly visual, sometimes abstract representations of the conventions
in film, a ‘cinema verite’ style to represent image manipulation and loneliness
in photography, a self-tryptic to represent the extremes of the sharded self

nb: iphone 5c used on all images & footage for execution connectivity