What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen

by Kate Fagan

Now we spend hours a day consuming one another online. Moreover, digital natives have known only this reality. They have grown up on Instagram and Snapchat, absorbing hundreds of images a day. And most of these perfect pictures, loaded into boxes, reflect little of each person’s reality. We’re consuming an increasingly filtered world yet walking through our own realities unfiltered. Maybe this matters less when life is good. Maybe when we’re in a good space, when we’re “happy,” it’s nice to launch social media and see how well everyone else is doing. The whole experience might feel like momentum, all this beauty and goodness gracefully stacking higher and higher. And when you’re in this place, you’re often rational, too, because your mind isn’t in fight-or-flight mode. Your pulse is low. Your thinking is clear. You’re able to recognize how edited so much of it is. But that’s okay, you tell yourself, because life is so good, and beautiful pictures and projected happiness are lovely.