exaggerated sentimentalism

Today, getting together and breaking up is no longer an affair between two individuals. It is shared openly with the whole world. Friendster status accounts switch from ‘Attached’ to ‘Single’ as soon as a relationship goes extinct, and a relationship is consummated by denouncing to the public through your blog that your boyfriend/girlfriend is so-and-so, and you have so much love for him/her in your heart.

Very soon, lovey-dovey pictures of you and your other half kissing, holidaying and having meals together pop up all over Facebook/Friendster/MySpace.

Likewise, photos of you and your BFF are splashed all over the internet, cam-whoring with wanton abundance. Your love for your BFF is no longer shared between the both of you or a close group of friends. No way! The entire world deserves to know how close the both of us are, so much so that boyfriends can’t come in the way, because you know, boyfriends come and go, but BFFs are here to stay!

The internet is your stage, the public is your audience, and YOU are the STAR! The audience deserves to know every itty-bitty detail of your lifestyle, and the people you hang out with. They can’t wait to know how many years you have known BFF, can’t wait to hear about how you went to a holiday in Genting Highlands with your other half. No! Every salivating detail down to what you and your BFF had for dinner has to be exposed to the hungry public, feeding their ravenous appetites while you gloat over your burgeoning readership.

It’s like seeing things through a magnifying glass. Every detail of your life is protracted. Night out with your girlfriends? Quick, take photos of you and your friends gulping beer and partying on the dance floor. See? I’m now officially ‘cool’. I lead a ‘cool’ lifestyle and I have ‘cool’ friends who love me. See the girl kissing me on the right kissing me on my cheek? She’s my BFF! I HEART HER SO MUCH!

Public entertainment is no longer reserved solely for the television screens, you are your own scriptwriter, and you are the main star.

Don’t mistake me, affection is a good thing. But, when does affection turn to affectation, putting up a pretense for the entire world to see? That’s a minefield to thread. Because everything about you and your life is then determined by appearing to be a certain persona over the internet. Somebody you are not in real life. You get so absorbed in the display of sentimentalism that you forget how to live without the roving eyeballs witnessing your every move. You carve the attention. And, so, you feed it. And, then you carve it somemore.

Isn’t it ridiculous and egoistic to act like you are popular and have 16,000 friends on your Friendster account, when in reality, you know only 50 people on your list, and out of that, 1 is your best friend, 3 are your close friends, 14 are your so-so friends, and the rest? Acquaintances or people you chat with over the net.

In fact, the overwhelming sense of sentimentalism that floods the internet, leads me to think: Maybe you aren’t really that close with your BFF, maybe you are only putting up an act. Maybe your life in reality is not as glamorous as you portray it to be, maybe it’s full of parties and fun, but maybe you are really feeling empty inside? Maybe you feel insecure about having such a handsome boyfriend, and so dedicate internet space to gloat over his pretty boy looks, just so that you can enjoy the attention as long as it lasts?

Okay, let’s assume that you are really, really close to your BFF or your boyfriend/girlfriend? Is there a need to post up photos of you kissing, romantic gestures on their part etc?

Isn’t the greatest kind of love the one that is not unabashedly displayed, but enveloped within the depths of the heart, to be shared between the both of you?

But, maybe I’m just really old-fashioned, and have no idea how the romantic mechanisms of the 21st century really works.

My question is: Who are you hoping to see all these? And, why?

Is it really to spread your joy (How generous of you!) or is it to satisfy a carving for attention deep inside, or an ego/moral-boosting activity?

The free anarchy of the internet dictates that today, Reality TV is not the only path to mini-stardom.