Would the real Slim Shady please stand up

My friend, who is your average Joe, has over 2000 followers on his instagram account. Now, I’m not hating here, I am more between amused and confused. I keep asking him about how on earth he would accumulate such a following for no reason whatsoever.

When I say he is an average Joe, he is exactly that. No more. No less. He’s not marketing anything. He’s not a public figure. He doesn’t do engagements of any sorts. He’s not producing anything. None of that stuff that you would think someone would amass a large following of people for. I actually work with him. So I know him on a very personal level. I’m also one of his instagram followers, which gives me an insider perspective of sorts.

It all started with a regular instagram account, with his friends following him, interlinking into the social media society. And for reasons unknown to any of us, his following blew up just about overnight. He posts regular “selfie” pictures, and every blue moon a picture out of the day of his life. He never perpetrates to be anything but himself, not ever making any fraudulent statements. Yet his followers seem to be under the impression that he must be either an artist, a musician, or a well-established high-end educated professional in the field he works in. WITHOUT him ever making any insinuations about such things on any of the posts he makes.

His followers simply see what they want to believe.

Following his instagram account is such an eye opener about the world we live in. That we in general are so entrapped in our illusions or what we want things to be that we are incapable of seeing things for what they are. It takes a highly skeptical mind or a well-worn spirit to cut through our self-imposed illusions, beliefs and points of view. Of course we all receive our own personal wake up calls that help us adjust our perspective, yet we will never see the complete picture without having some sort of illusion about it.