Zilla van den Born, a Dutch graphic design student, took a five week long vacation–at home. No one knew this, but her. Everyone else following her on Facebook thought she was in Southeast Asia. Born took several photos of herself and Photoshopped herself so it looked like she having the time of her life exploring a new country. She even had to disguise herself and redecorate her room to look like a hotel for when she Skyped her friends and family. She did all of this as part of a school project. At the end of her five week long vacation, she revealed her tricks to those she had deceived, and recorded their reactions. All the reactions started with a look of confusion and a half smile, but as they soon learned what Born had done, they broke out into different reactions. Some started cracking up, and others were outraged. Through this project, Born wanted to draw attention how reality is distorted through social media, and how not everything is exactly what it seems. Born feels guilty about the impact that she had on her family and friends, and says would not do it again. Was this trick cruel? Or did it bring what Born set out to do? Is your online profile distorting reality so much that you can’t live up to it in real life?
