Sonder in the Age of Social Media
Definition: Sonder
n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness — an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk (definition source).
Made up definition or not, I do look around and wonder…
“What’s your life like? Is it as crazy, fun, sad and mixed up as mine?”
The answer is undoubtedly “yes!” but the fact that I can’t see it sometimes makes me doubt.
Such is the modern life, where we each go about our day insulated by the ghetto of our work, friends, family and neighborhood while simultaneously exposed to the weathering impact of perfectly curated lives rained down upon us by social media.
Concurrently covered and naked.
All too often hiding the very emotions that make us human for fear of appearing as we are — imperfect beings trying to keep up in a busy world.

