Today I found out coffees are fake.

Today I found out coffees are fakes. Not the one you drink, but the one you see. The social media’s coffee, as everything else in there, suffers from “glamorization” of reality. The pretty foam on top? Is added in Photoshop. The very black coffee with a warm appearance? It’s soy sauce with a smoke, Photoshopped again. You see a picture of a wonderful espresso that makes you crave it, but most of the time the last thing in there is coffee.

Then you see a person with a hotter body than yours, or someone enjoying life more. Travel, happy couples, material goods. But remember the fake coffee, the one with everything but coffee inside?

The society of the spectacle needs everything to be perfect, everything to be desirable. It’s not enough for you to warm up and gain energy from your drink. You need it to be AWESOME, HOT, PERFECT! (yes, all in capital letters to get your attention). If you were asked “Would you rather drink coffee in your mug with a chipped tip and foam with no art on top or drink 200ml of Shoyu sauce”, what would your answer be?

It is very easy to think that the grass is greener on the other side. But is it real? I see couples that don’t even like each other in real life, but on social media they make a perfect match. And one’s lover even comments “my favorite couple”, to make the show even more dazzling. The grass has the most beautiful green you’ve ever seen, but the water will never penetrate that cheap plastic.

I cannot give you an immediate solution to such an intrinsic problem of society. But if what we are looking for is freedom and change, I just know they exist in the difference, in the imperfect, in the unexpected. What we remember about life is exactly when the mug broke, when the food burned, the Ferris wheel stopped. “Today I had a perfect coffee”. Cool, but so what?

I don’t think we need to stop admiring the fake coffee. We can look at its pretty foam and want to taste it. But it is essential that, when having your own coffee at home, you also admire and enjoy your imperfect drink. It may not have the unattainable perfection of social media, but at least you’re not gulping down a bunch of soy sauce.