Eddie Pinero

He's authentic.

He's raw.

He's real.

That's why we watch him.

But the reality is, every day, we're told in tailor-made, strategically located advertisements that, hey, John Smith achieved success, happiness, and fame with this product or this service.

And without that, you can't get what you want.

Or we turn on our phones, we go on social media and it's hearts and likes and double taps and we're not saying what we want to say.

We're reverse engineering how to get that validation.

For those with brands or those in the marketing space, I mean, you know, it's always about trying to understand this mysterious algorithm where your posts will be buried.

What we're being asked to do overall every day is manipulate ourselves to meet the demands of the platform or of the external criteria.

And I'm not saying it's morally wrong.

There's no atrocity being committed.

Part of life is adapting.

But what I am suggesting is there's a danger that we're not aware of.

Amidst all this chaos and confusion and manipulation, we tend to lose ourselves.

And when we lose ourselves, it doesn't happen all at once.

It's gradual.

It happens little by little, one concession at a time.

We don't snap our fingers and disappear.

We slowly slip away.