CAMOUFLAGE

This year I have spent more time in the woods hunting than ever before and I have learned how important camouflage is to a successful hunt.  Visual and scent camouflage allow the hunter to enter the domain of deer without being seen or smelled and blend in with the natural environment.  Preparing my personal camouflaged blind and clothing for hunting brought to mind how individuals can camouflage themselves in daily life, especially through social media. 

I was a huge fan of social media when it first came on the scene and still believe it can be beneficial, if used appropriately.  I personally see social media as working much like hunting camouflage in that it allows individuals to portray themselves as something they are not. . . they are camouflaged.  None of our lives are without struggles, disappointments and achievements; but on Facebook and Instagram we can have the perfect life.  Now granted none of us want to air all of our dirty laundry, but more often than not we want to post and share those pictures and status updates that obviously show us only at our best.  Do we talk and act one way on our profiles and a different way in person?  Do we use social media to camouflage who we are to others?  There is an acronym known as WYSIWYG {What You See Is What You Get}.  Well, WYSIWYG is not always true with social media.  We all know those individuals; the perfect parent on Facebook, the young man who acts tough through the words of his tweets or the young girl who photoshops her selfies for Instagram.   Social media has created a new avenue for peer pressure for all ages allowing people to be camouflaged.  We have to decide how to use social media to project ourselves to the world.  Is it who we really are, or are we camouflaged in social media to be something we are not?

These are my two camouflaged hunting blinds.