Nothing on social media is quite what it seems. That's the thesis statement at the heart of Shaun Higton's new short film What's on Your Mind?, the pitch-black parable about a man whose life is in a tailspin, but who wants the world to think otherwise.
The film opens with the unnamed man eating a drab-looking dinner with his girlfriend, who sits at the opposite end of the couch. The Facebook status update bar asks him the titular question that the social network's one-billion-plus users are confronted with every day: "What's on your mind?"
"Sushi with my girl tonite!!!" our hapless hero erroneously posts. That's when the Likes start to pour in. As many of us can attest, validation on social media can be incredibly addictive, as Likes, comments, retweets, and follows have become a kind of drug for the Millennial Age. If other people like our lives, does it matter that we don't?
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Our hero doesn't seem to think so, and continues to use Facebook to delude his friends, and ultimately himself.
Watch the brief but effective cautionary tale below.