Six Sentence Story – Connection
Filters
Shelby felt like she had slipped between the cracks of her life where she was neither in or out of most things. Her phone was the connection to a reality that she was supposed to have with filters and fake smiles. The more she tried to connect to that world, the more she felt herself slipping away from who she really was.
So, when they found her body, it took a long time to figure out it was her. All of her photos had been filled with filters and alterations that made her appear to be someone else. Even the photo at the funeral didn’t match the body because real life is never like it is in the pictures.
Writing In The Deep 
21 responses to “Flash Fiction – Filters”
Yeah, these devices that keep us connected can really do the opposite, can disconnect us with ourselves. Great modern day parable.
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Thank you. I find myself on my phone more than I should be.
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I’m addicted to my phone
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Unfortunately, I am too.
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Good point about not trusting those photos.
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It feels like nothing is real online anymore.
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Welcome to Six Sentence Stories, Heather 🙂
No one talks about “losing reality” in the context of tech and gadgets and our phones. Those elements of our daily life that provide so much in the way of convenience and connection can have the opposite effect by reinforcing virtual life over real life. The life we wake to each day.
While a sad Six, it’s a sure commentary on current culture.
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Thanks. I find myself getting lost on my phone for hours and then realizing I did absolutely nothing. I feel like the pandemic has definitely made it much easier for us to get lost in technology instead of going out and really living. Yet, I find myself craving real experiences and connections.
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Very apposite to our times of unconnected connections.
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With covid, this is the only way some people can connect sadly.
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We are more apart than ever sometimes now, even in the same room.
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Absolutely. I am in the same room as most of my family and we are all on devices.
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Who knows what lies behind the writer’s mask? Sometimes I like the illusion. 🙂
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oh man! I’m totally liking this Six.
(Don’t tell the others, but I’m one of those people who find the virtual stage/filter/whatever, something I
really enjoy. Even as simple a thing like a telephone conversation (as opposed to face-to-face) I prefer the
former to the latter.
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I totally get it. Sometimes we feel like we can be different people when we use technology. I am a lot more self conscious in person and find it easier to use technology to communicate.
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How desperately sad. The pressures phones put on us to live up to impossible – and fake – ideals. So well told.
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Thank you. I worry that my children and other people’s children will think that they have to be perfect because all they see is perfection online.
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Oh my! So true that people’s online persona’s are the real story. Great job!
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Thank you.
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It is so complex. I read articles, stories on my phone, so it feel fortunate, but I worry about people getting lost in those filters. It’s one thing to do it for fun, but the best person to be is the one we are.
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What is scary is the people who get plastic surgery to try to become the filters that they use on their phones.
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