Chase Hughes

In the back of your mind, you know you're faking it and you know that none of them really like the real you.

And you get, at the end of the day, and I'm not saying this is you, but at the end of the day, you're lonely in a room of 150, 200 people because you know that none of them know you and you haven't ever really been seen by anybody.

So increased fear of judgment because of social media equals increased performance equals I'm wearing a costume today

almost all the time, and nobody has ever seen me, nobody really knows me.

So even if they claim to like me, in the back of my brain, there's this little reminder mechanism that says, they don't like the real me.

And nobody ever has, nobody's ever seen me.

So this is my opinion, but I think that's the root of the pandemic that we're in right now of loneliness.

Like we're more connected than ever and more performative than ever at the same time.

So we can't really connect.

And our brains are wired for 120, 130 person tribe.

And we start getting over that and we have massive issues.

It's interesting that a lot of the time the person has been subsumed by the persona, the role that people are playing.

Yeah.

But the persona is incapable of receiving love.

It can only receive praise at best.

And it feels like a pat on the back.

It's the same as people don't love Chris Hemsworth.

They love Thor.

They don't love Russell Crowe, they love Gladiator.

So how can you be surprised if you don't genuinely existentially feel the connection with your pursuits and your successes and the people around you?