“Fake” is a prevalent four letter F-word in our vernacular these days. A few examples:
- We have accusations of “fake news.”
- Entrepreneurs talk about “fake it til you make it” to succeed.
- Scammers create fake Facebook profiles to recruit “fake friends.”
- There are fake claims by products delivering skewed marketing.
- There are fake foods posing as nutritional.
- There are fake celebrities on social media.
- And there are fake statistics feeding the fake news as indicated by this article in Forbes magazine.
“Fake” seems to be a new reality these days. The Urban Dictionary has many uses for the word. Fake can mean everything from “phony” to “fabricate” with a few interpretations in between. You can fake a friendship, an identity, a story, a claim and many people still see it as real. In a world with so much information and misinformation being shared it’s hard to decipher the real from the fake.
Sometimes “fake” can be good. For animal lovers, wearing a fake fur is preferable over real. A fake bake spray-on tan is safer than going to a tanning salon. Fake eyelashes and wigs are beneficial to anyone facing medical hair loss. And yes, sometimes you do need to “fake it til you make it” to get your foot in the door and a leg up in business as long as you do it through hard work and not on the backs of others.
But fabrication in science, nutrition, politics, media and other “reliable courses” is conning the public. And creating a fake person(a) to take advantage of others is wrong. Attempting to be and portray yourself as something and someone you are not in order to avoid facing your own reality is dangerous. Many people on social media, from influential Instagrammers to pervasive posters, have far less exciting real lives. Maybe that’s why anxiety is the #1 one mental health issue in the USA affecting 40 million Americans.
Graphic: National Institute for Mental Health
Sometimes when people can’t relate, they fabricate. Authentic is healthier than fake. #fearlessfabulousyou
Fake is for real. It’s up to us to learn to ask the questions, dig for better information and use our best judgement. And it’s up to us to stop comparing our lives to others. FOMO “fear of missing out” should not have us worrying about being elsewhere and avoiding our own reality. The real deal is being true to yourself. You need to embrace your own authenticity, slow down and not miss out on the things in your own life you are too distracted to enjoy. Consider it the LIMO Life- Living in the Moment.
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