‘Authenticity is like charisma,’51 writes Andrew Potter in The Authenticity Hoax. ‘If you have to tell people you have it, then you probably don’t.’ It is hard even now for me to distinguish between my authentic tastes and those I absorb from my peers. The question is further complicated by the internet: how do you remain authentic when you’re constantly internalising compliments and criticism not only of yourself but of your peers – privy, as you are, to their mutating digital selves – in equal measure? For me, this has meant digital disassociation. Not so much to regularly log off my digital
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