do i speak only from social prose and formulaic turns of speech?

... strategic self-presentation robs us of our sense of personal authenticity. Social media can make us all too aware of how calculating we might seem to others and presents us with the unsolvable problem of how to convey our truly genuine interest in something without it coming across as a convenient or tactical pose. The space in which we can experience ourselves just being ourselves disappears.
- Rob Horning, Excerpt from "Selflessness and Self-Absorption", The New Inquiry Magazine,

there is a desire to share experience and for the human soul to want to connect with another being. but how much of my understanding of my own experience is now being translated from the lens of the other? or i guess, simply put, are we all in danger of only enjoying the event if someone else tells us its enjoyable.

its kind of like what D has been telling me about her work with yelp data and the effects of information aggregation on preference formation. our opinions are tinged with the voices of others and even though herd behaviour has always been around, its likely that social media has heightened the potential to make our moves even more calculated to resemble each other. its another avenue to dress up, put on a face to meet all the other painted faces and call attention to all the wonderful interesting things you did today like checking in at some nice restaurant AAA.

its not that there is something intrinsically wrong in living this way; i think our experiences will always inevitably be shaped and defined by others somewhat so long as we live in and move from community to community (there's also something to be said of shared experiences and building on each other's joy). but i guess i do wonder how much pleasure we derive out of an encounter or experience stems from the event itself and is just our own real pure response, untainted, not bowing to anyone and really, just yourself.

will have to keep this in mind as i try to be real.