Summertime and the livin’ ain’t easy….. and what will you have to show for it, a couple of long weekends at the beach? A backyard BBQ birthday? These local occasions allow you no bragging rights because you haven’t really gone anywhere worth talking about. That’s right, no video of you waving from your outside balcony on the Caribbean cruise, no straw market souvenirs but thankfully, no morning after headache from your indulgence at the Tiki bar.
So how do you keep up a front in these times? Vacation turned into stay-cation which, through the marvels of photo-shop became Fake-ation. There’s a whole new world out there and you can picture yourself in it!
The NPR show, ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me’, told a story about a woman who went on vacation and had her holiday pictures digitally enhanced so she looked like she lost weight. She didn’t stop there. She had famous personalities photo-shopped into her pictures along with other photo trickery which showed her having a better time than she actually did. What’s more American than making yourself seem more than you are? What a concept! Impress your friends with your vacation pictures by having them enhanced. Years from now, as your memories blend into hazy thoughts of days somewhere else with people you hardly remember, you may really think you did all those things.
We’ve been lying to each other for years when we describe ourselves for that online profile. And who really uses their own face on Face-book? That’s why there are so many Jessica Alba look alikes out there.
Hair club for men, Hair dye for men, Rich thick wavy black hair for men club. There’s no truth in advertising! That’s why we don’t see the insecure bald man’s club.
We enhance so many parts of our bodies that the original factory model is light years away from recognition. I’ve seen over-stuffed lips that must weigh 3 pounds. OK, so personally, you tell stories about who you are, where you’ve been and what you’ve done. So, what if you digitally elaborate? Everyone seems to cross over that line. Everyone wants to swipe right!
Travel brochures show off the idyllic scene outside your hotel. What they don’t say is that you’ll need a telescope to see it. The line that says, ‘You’re minutes away from the beach.’ That may be more than 30 minutes, and the crystal clear waters? A wader can’t see their toes.
The prepared foods we see on TV commercials do not quite measure up in real life. In commercials, the syrup on a pancake is probably motor oil and the butter is plastic. Almost nothing is how it appears.
Do you think the people who said we really didn’t land on the moon were right? Could it have been an elaborate hoax? Did they take off and land in Hollywood instead?
You can spend 6 days and 7 nights on an ocean liner, see exotic ports of call, or just produce an email album that you can post to your friends. They probably know that something just doesn’t seem right but, gee, there it is, on your Facebook page or Insta post.
You could play some audio of the ocean breezes with seagulls and children playing in the background and say “I’m reporting live from Aruba at the Tiki bar near the pool. There’s the photographer, hey could you take a picture? I’d like to show my friends where I’ve been!”
