We all want to be someone else.

We constantly use screens as extensions of our eyes, as windows into other worlds, worlds where the grass is often greener.

Movie screens are particularly unique in their ability to allow viewers to escape to other places. In his book The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact, philosopher Collin McGinn discusses the relationship between, the movie screen, vision and perception. While movie screens are made for an audience to sit and look at, McGinn argues that movie screens are not something that can actually be seen. Rather, when a movie is playing on a screen the viewer sees a projection on the screen, more importantly what the projection is representing, and are then inherently unaware of the screen’s presence.

Like movie screens, computer and cell phone screens are windows into other worlds. While we may be less aware of the escapism that smaller devices provide, they are so familiar, easy-to-use, and easy-to-personalize, it is as if these screens are part of our eyes, allowing us to constantly see things that we would never otherwise see.

Since the creation of Facebook in 2004, users have uploaded more than 250 billion photos, and are currently uploading a total of 350 million photos each day. These numbers make Facebook the largest photo-sharing site, but other social media networks like WordPress, Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr support different variations of the same kind of image-based visual communication. On these sites it is increasingly important for users to compile images to build a visual autobiography for followers. Anyone who takes photos for social media is faced with many options including subject matter, framing, and editing options.

Once photos are sorted, edited and posted, people see them and imagine real life scenarios, but the stories they imagine have been carefully constructed by the person whose who is posting the photos. While screens and social media are a fascinating window into places and lives beyond our own, the nature of photography, and photos published on social media leads to representations of idealistic rather than realistic lives, changing the way we perceive the world and the way we perceive our own lives.

I don’t know about you, but I often find myself wanting to live lives I see on social media, and wanting to be like people who I really don’t even know. What I base my desire on is the seemingly exciting, fun, and always adventurous lives that are packaged up in little photographic biographies on Facebook and Instagram. What I don’t always take the time to realize is that any life on social media has been filtered down to show only its best bits. As a matter of fact, if I looked at my Instagram from an outsider’s perspective I would probably think I have a very fun, adventurous and perfect life. Really it’s just my life. I love it, but it is fairly average.

Who would you rather be? Who’s life on social media most appeals to you? I bet you’ve got someone in mind. Whoever that person is, they are probably pretty great, but I challenge you to want to be yourself. After all, that is all you can be.