The Best Nine of 2017

Just shared my #bestnine2017 on Instagram. The theme of the year was ‘Milestones in Life’. 

It’s about the struggle of writing thesis (first time ever), graduating from the University of Queensland, and reuniting again with husband after total 1.5 years of LDR. 

The year is physically and emotionally challenging, but it taught me to believe in my self more, never give up, and never doubt the grace of God. 

On a side note, this Best Nine thing makes me think about how life nowadays is what you projected in social media. You curate before posting, picking only the ones related with the image you want everybody to convey. Then these photos compete to garner more likes to be the Best Nine of the year. 

In this sense, the Best Nine can be inaccurate to the real life as it’s determined merely by ‘likes’ of others. What you think of what the Best Nine is isn’t the one counted. It’s their judgement, not yours.

Additionally, perhaps there is something more important or best in life but it’s not documented in a photo, or if it is, the photo isn’t attractive enough to reap heap of likes. 

I know the Best Nine is just a fun thing to do, but it makes me realise even more how curated life can be deceiving as it may not represent the real thing. Also, how things in social media sphere is decided by likes of others is kind of scary (remember ‘Slow Dive’ episode from the Black Mirror?). 

I reckon that one of essences of social media is to show-off, but it’s also celebrated as an avenue to express more freely.  But then as natural as it can be, we have the tendency to be liked by others, to seek approval from people, so there you go. You can strive for likes or just ignore the world and post whatever you like. Can we balance it though by posting things you like yet most probably will be loved by others too? Well, it’s possible, but still, there’s boundary, that the post needs to comply with your self-image projection guideline. 

In the end, everybody curates, and nothing is what as it seems.

 

Oh by the way, happy new year!