Social Media: Between Guards and Jailers

In the digital age, social media has proven to be two sides of the same coin: on the one hand, they offer us the freedom to express ourselves, share, and connect; on the other, they chain us in an invisible prison of expectations, judgments, and self-censorship.

We have become zealous guardians of our online image, orchestrating every post, every photo, every comment with the precision of a film director. This scrupulous management of our digital identity transforms us into rigorous guardians of ourselves, where every mistake can become an indelible label.

At the same time, we are also our own jailers. The pressure to maintain a perfect image, the fear of being judged, and the need to gain approval lock us in a cell made of likes and shares. Each scroll is a turn of the key that keeps us anchored to a screen that judges, approves or rejects.

Pasolini, with his lucid social criticism, would perhaps have seen in this phenomenon a new form of “new conformity,” a homologation not imposed by authoritarian systems, but self-inflicted by mass society. He could have compared social media to a “new fascism”—not the one of the Blackshirts, but a more subtle and insidious one, one that insinuates itself into our lives through technology.

In this dichotomy, social media becomes a battlefield where freedom and restriction are inextricably intertwined. The question that arises is: how can we navigate this digital world while maintaining our sense of authenticity and freedom, without falling into the trap of becoming our own jailers?

The challenge requires balance, awareness, and perhaps above all, the courage to show oneself imperfect in a world that exalts perfection. Only in this way can we transform chains into instruments of freedom, learning to use social media not as a judge, but as a means to express our true essence, in an act of rebellion against the “new conformity” that Pasolini would certainly have recognized and criticized.