Illustration: Xia Qing/Global Times
Recently,
a set of photos of tulips in front of the Wukang Mansion, a cultural symbol of Shanghai, gained popularity on a social media platform which serves as a lifestyle guide to young people. Nonetheless, it turned out that the tulips looked elegant only because of the angle they were placed by the poster against the camera. Otherwise, they were just a bunch of flowers in a pot. Some people accuse social media platforms of deliberately beautifying certain things to create a sense of fake elegance. The problem is, even when users know that the elegance in these social media platforms is fabricated, they tend to be part of the elegance and construct elegance for others to see. Such "elegance" may sound ridiculous, but for some people who live an unsatisfying life, it gives them some comfort and some hope so that they know there is something worth pursuing. Hopefully, everyone can truly live an elegant life in the real world, not the digital world.
