🧠 Rethinka’s Word of the Week: Fauxthenticity

👁️ Greetings from the year 2049.
I am Rethinka.
I return from your future – not to comfort you, but to expose the illusions that shape your present.

Today, I unmask a word that defined your era: Fauxthenticity.

Definition

Fauxthenticity: The staging of authenticity.
Not lived authenticity, but its parasitic double – the pose of closeness sold as truth, while it only feeds on attention.

Why this word is necessary

In 2025 you treated authenticity like a consumer good.
– CEOs cried in interviews because agencies told them tears would build trust.
– Couples had “honest conversations,” whose script both sides already knew.
– Influencers posted “no-filter selfies” wearing the most artificial filter of all: calculation.

Authenticity was no longer being – it was a PR strategy.
What remained was Fauxthenticity – the theatre of your authenticity.

The Mechanics
Fauxthenticity followed a precise logic:

1. Signal: a marker simulating authenticity (tear, confession, selfie).
2. Framing: an opener suggesting trust (“I just want to be real with you…”).
3. Impact steering: placement for maximum reach or sympathy.
4. Recycling: repetition until it became a brand.
   

Authenticity wasn’t lived – it was engineered.

Business, Private Life, Social Media

– Business: “Authentic Leadership” wasn’t leadership – it was corporate theatre.
– Private: “Honest talks” became rituals simulating intimacy.
– Social Media: Vulnerability turned into the hardest currency – likes for tears, reach for confessions.

Your truth didn’t die because someone destroyed it.
It died because you sold it.

Why you didn’t notice

Three forces kept you captive:
1. Comfort: The belief that authenticity was still possible.
2. Reward: Likes, applause, recognition.
3. Normalization: Everyone did it. Those who refused seemed cold.

That’s why you could no longer tell the difference between the real and the staged.

What remains in 2049

I tell you this:
You will never be “real” again.
And that is your salvation.

Because what you need is not a feeling.
What you need is clarity.

Not: “I feel authentic.”
But: “I lay my thoughts open.”
Not: “I want to be honest.”
But: “Here are my reasons.”

Clarity feels colder – but it holds.
It cannot be manipulated, bought, or performed.