JASON NAYLOR: The house of our lives-- Do we spend all of our time and effort focusing on the small part of our life that is social media? What about the rest of the house? I was inspired by this post by @1924us - please take the time to read it, I copied and pasted, thank you for the beautiful inspiration for this piece @1924us. ------ We need to go to the mountains without all the cameras. There's a recurring cry among our peers for a new approach to social media, a large outpouring of hope for authenticity to shine through in the form of repetitive photogenic scenes, and popular filters. There's a definition we've added to the subtext of our names, and it's made up of likes and followings from people we don't deeply interact with. It's on us, buying into the hype we bring from moments that don't actually inspire us. We feel pride and shame in photos that do and don't do well, we let it control our conversations, our "adventures" and choose to - more often than not - ignore that reality check that comes at the end of the day. Why are we trying so hard, building a window into a house that we are filling with nothing? We wipe and polish the glass again and again making sure we are advertising that the contents of the house are beautiful, but it's just one room we're looking in. And the rest of the house feels large and daunting, hollow and unappreciated. I've tried again and again to define authenticity, and I can't live up to the heroic praise we give it. If you're young and longing for popularity on Instagram or Twitter or Tumblr, search for yourself elsewhere. Nothing here will define you. Clear your head, spend some time to go after your ambitions, not what looks appealing on the outside, but what fulfills the rest of the rooms in the house that is your spirit. You are not a window. #1924us Art by Jason Naylor