What if no one could see it?
The other day I went to a wedding.
And at some point I had a slightly strange feeling: 80% of what was happening seemed designed to be shown.
Not necessarily to be lived, but to be photographed.
To show up in a story. To make a nice video. So someone would ask where it was from. So that corner would look good on Instagram.
That night I started asking myself something: what would we do differently if social media didn't exist?
I can tell you a lot of things would disappear.
We'd spend less money on the things that only make sense once you've seen them in a photo, and we'd start doing things simply because we actually enjoy them.
Setting a beautiful table because we like eating at a beautiful table. Choosing flowers because they make someone we love happy. Throwing a party because we love dancing.
The problem is, it's getting harder and harder to tell the two apart.
A few days ago I was reading something by a sociologist about this. He talked about how we've gotten used to thinking there are two separate lives: the real one and the digital one.
But maybe the problem isn't that we spend too much time in front of a screen.
It's that the screen has started changing how we live everything that happens outside of it.
We travel, and we think about the photo. We go to a restaurant, and we think about how it'll look. We get dressed, and we think about the image. We plan a party and, without noticing, we're already thinking about how it will come across.
Even when we're not posting anything, social media's eye can still be there.
And that feels more interesting to me than just talking about screen time.
Because maybe it's not about how many hours we spend looking at a screen. It's about how many things we've started looking at through one.
The change is entirely up to us.
Just becoming aware of that split is already a first step toward getting back a little space between living something and thinking about sharing it.
Toward doing things simply because we feel like it. Even if no one sees them.
And maybe that's the question I'd like to start asking myself more often: would I still do this if no one could see it?
If the answer is yes, I'll keep doing it.
But if the answer is no, maybe it's worth asking why.
Because our life shouldn't be a collection of things that deserve to be posted.
Some things are better lived than shared.
And maybe getting a little balance back is just that simple: doing things again that don't need an audience.