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A conversation is overheard between two people; one congratulates the other on their success, evident through numerous posts on LinkedIn, but the other admits the excessive boasting is due to a decline in achievements. The subscription for a service costs $205.00 plus GST for one year, with an automatic renewal at $233.00 plus GST every 52 weeks, offering a 10% discount off the regular annual price of $259.35. The offer is available to new and qualified returning subscribers only, and cancellations can be made at any time.

On an airplane, a young man spends three hours scrutinizing selfies taken during a vacation, zooming in on his biceps and utilizing AI to enhance the photos before posting them on Instagram. Anonymous and cowardly trolls on Reddit attempt to undermine another individual's career. These instances of "storytelling" were noted by the reviewer in just one day.

Storytelling is ingrained in our species as a means of memory, understanding the universe, and explaining the unexplainable. Through various forms of expression such as poems, songs, drums, film, photographs, dance, ancient cave drawings, books, and now social media, we continuously seek to make sense of our lives and connect with others. However, what happens when storytelling becomes a collection of lies, self-promotion, petty grievances, and a relentless pursuit to claim "I am OK, and probably better than you?"

Montreal-based writer Kathryn Jezer-Morton attempts to answer this question in her book, The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything. Her exploration, drawn from her doctoral research on momfluencers, involves speaking with social media users across North America. Jezer-Morton delves into the history of social media and its transformation from a platform for simply sharing life updates to a focus on personal branding over the past two decades.

She argues that social media has altered the way we perceive and express ourselves, often reducing our narratives to "all light and no shadow."

Jezer-Morton's concerns extend beyond screen time; they revolve around losing our ability to simply be, accept life's imperfections, and tell genuine stories devoid of excessive boasting, exaggeration, or even deceit. She contends that social media has created conditions for losing our humanity and understanding of how we process our lives. The reviewer echoes this sentiment, observing that the practice of "storytelling" was evident in a single day, encompassing everything from vacations to personal achievements.