How long …

Imagine you are in front of a camera and you take a pose, how long can you maintain this pose? My guess is something in between 10 to 30 seconds and then you want to get out and get back to your normal pose. I hardly know anyone who will not feel uncomfortable under the watch of a camera that is ready to shoot, and will not feel released once the camera lens is looking away. Except for celebrities! I guess they are always watchful of their postures in public so cameras are quite alright, they are posing constantly anyway. Though my actual question is, why is it that we pose in front of camera eyes, why is it that we like to look in a certain way when a spectator is viewing or going to view us? Why do we find it difficult to simply be us in from of camera, without a smile, a way we usually are?
Another interesting scenario is when we meet a stranger! Usually, we start to portray ourselves the way we think we are or wish to be, how long can we keep it? My guess is few hours max and then we are longing to get out and get back to our normal self. This is very true in many social interactions where we portray something that is not exactly us, either intellectually or physically. The brain capacity to maintain this false image is limited and we would seek an opportunity to avoid it, to get rid of it. Isn't this why we skip certain kind of social interactions?
Jean Paul Sartre’s “No Exit” has demonstrated this point to the best I have seen. He just puts three people together in one room and allows the situation to unfold, in which everyone wants an exit from the watchful eyes of “the other”. They start getting to know each other, then they get comfortable with each other and then they get to reveal each other and that is the moment of truth, cause after that no one is willing to stay within the boundaries of the room. Once the false masks are removed then they cannot play anymore and yet they have difficulty being themselves while there are eye of “the other’ looking at them.
I was thinking today, of this dilemma from a different angle. When you meet someone for first time, should you be you or the image of you? It is amazing to be you, comfortable and cosy, but what if you are an introvert, who is usually quiet, into his thinking and difficult to open up, which is actually who we mostly are after years of leaving solitude lives! Then you will lose this window of opportunity to grab the other person’s attention, and I am not talking in here about the context of dating but rather in general terms of getting to know someone and making friends with.
On the other hand, if you are the image of you, soon it will be tiring and you would like to get out of it, so either you have to walk out or change the dynamics of relation into a different direction in which you are more you! And this is the point that I like to call getting comfortable. That’s where the game ends and the reality begins.
Half way to my life, having shared many moments with friend, family and lovers, I still prefer my solitude where I am me, all me, and unfortunately, even though the solitude is an amazing place away from the eyes of “the other” I still look for a companion in life, and I don’t really know why!