Real or not Real?

The Truman show delusion is a type of grandiose delusion in which patients believe their lives are staged plays or reality television shows.

Do we create and choose our own reality or is it shaped for us? In Mark Deuze's paper Media Life: Media, Culture, & Society he explains and discusses the truman show delusion. With the rise of social media and cell phones a new reality has been created that has embedded itself within our perceptions of the way our life is or is going. Likes, favorites, reposts, reblogs, retweets have become a way for us to validate our self-worth and reputation. A way keep track of how well we are doing in the "game of life". The best part is that we are not only able to share how well we are doing with all our friends and family we can see how well (or bad) everyone else is doing around us. We can compare and contrast and adjust our behavior for the best results. There is pressure to share a reality that always appears positive and on the up-and-up.  But is the life we share on the internet actual reality or just a mere outer layer that we construct? Are we merely influenced by the constant positive reality of others around us, so we create an alter reality? In a study, researches found a correlation between Facebook and depression symptoms, caused by "social comparison". The article highlighting this correlation also states that comparing ourselves to say someone more attractive lowers our self-esteem while someone less attractive than us raises our self-esteem. Being surrounded by social media has created a "Truman reality show" in each our lives that makes us feel like we are being watched by the people around us, and we are also influenced by the "quality" lives of those people to post more and do more with our lives.