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I was walking down the street yesterday when I saw someone showing off his father’s car, which costs £8000. However, I know that boy, and he comes from a very poor background. 

I wondered why he was pretending in front of his friends about something he didn’t actually have. Or even if he owned it, what was the point of showing it off in front of others? 

I slowed down a bit and listened to their conversation. They were all boasting about each other’s fathers' achievements. Yes, you heard right- they are all between 20 and 22 years old. 

It made me question the purpose of showing off at all. Then I had a realisation, I'd seen this pattern before, on Instagram. 

People lie and show off just to get attention. Yes, attention is their currency. 

On Instagram, the father’s car becomes something else. It becomes trips, brands, cafes, clothes, and lifestyles. Everything is selected carefully. What to show, what to hide, what angle works best, what story sounds impressive. The medium changes, but the intention remains the same. People are sharing a version of them that will be admired. The street conversation and the Instagram post are driven by the same need, to control how others perceive you.

To understand this behaviour, it is important to go beyond calling it fake. Most people are not trying to deceive for the sake of lying. They are trying to secure a certain position in a social environment where worth is constantly being measured. When everyone around you is presenting a better version of their life, staying ordinary makes you feel like you’re falling behind. Attention is a form of validation. It signals that you are seen, that you matter, that you are not insignificant. Over time, this validation starts to feel necessary in every part of your life. This is why people exaggerate, borrow, or even create things that are not fully true. It is insecurity expressed in a socially acceptable way.

There is also a deeper issue of identity. When people repeatedly present an improved version of their lives, they begin to associate their value with that image. The line between reality and presentation becomes blurred. At the same time, everyone else is doing the same thing, which creates a cycle of comparison based on incomplete information. You are comparing your reality with someone else’s edited version. This creates pressure to keep up, even if what you are keeping up with is not real to begin with.

It is easy to stand outside this and criticise it, but the pattern is widespread because it is subtle. Many people participate in it without fully realising, yes, you, me, we all are doing this consciously or unconsciously. Choosing what to post, what to highlight, and what to leave out is already a form of shaping perception.

The difference between normal sharing and showing off is often just the intention behind it. One is about expression, the other is about impression. Recognising this difference is important because it allows you to step back and question your own actions as well.

If attention is treated as a currency, then authenticity becomes rare because it cannot be easily manufactured. It requires accepting that not everything about your life will impress others, and being comfortable with that. In the long run, constantly maintaining an image is exhausting and unstable, because it depends on external reactions. A more stable sense of self comes from not needing to prove your worth through objects, achievements, or associations.

And when you stop caring about fitting into society or loving yourself enough, you’ll find the best version or best way of living your life.

In the end, the question is not about who was telling the truth on that street. The more important question is why the truth did not feel sufficient in the first place. When people start relying on appearances to define their worth, they slowly hand over control of their identity to the opinions of others. That trade might seem harmless in small moments, but over time, it creates a gap between who someone is and who they feel they need to be.

Thanks for reading G! See ya!

— Anirban

The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel. It teaches you how to use money to enhance life satisfaction rather than just accumulating it.

Freshwater snails are responsible for about 200,000 human deaths annually due to parasites.