Ok, ok, no hard feelings here, Facebook ... I do love you. I love my newsfeed, seeing what everyone's up to, my friends quirky updates and hilarious pictures. I have some seriously entertaining friends. I have been able to better keep in touch with and get to know a variety of people than I would've been able to if I didn't have FB. Alas, there is a con to all of these pros, as a good friend has recently reminded me. This friend, like 99% of all other FB users, has become pretty exhausted by the amount of apparent immense amazingness everyone else claims that is eminating from their lives. World travel. Dream jobs. Whirlwind romances ... followed by stunning solitaires. Off the hook parties, once in a lifetime concerts, unbelievable photos. All of THAT on my newfeed leaves me with one feeling. "Crud." Why isn't my life like that?! Geez louise. Way to make me feel inadquate. As if we didn't already have enough pressure put on our shoulders from the rest of the world as far as what our lives should be. Now we have FB making it excruciatingly clear on a consistent basis just how lame we are. (I feel like I've said this already ... maybe I've blogged about it before? ;) In a perfect world, we could be honest about our failures, our flaws, our insecurities, and the actual number of Saturday nights in a year we spend on the couch watching that damned Netflix, instead of being out with our 100 besties, partying like a rock star. In a perfect world, that honesty would build bridges with other people who feel the same. Unfortunately those bridges are hard to come by - I'm guessing because the human nature in all of us would rather brag about the great stuff rather than be open about the crummy stuff. So where does this leave us, rather than perhaps not logging in to FB so often? I guess it couldn't hurt to give it a rest every once in a while. Yes, friends and family love to hear about your greatest accomplishments or the fact that you have a great life and are satisfied with it. But let's not forget that there are others seeing that stuff who may be struggling. It seems that replacing any fake enthusiasm about our "perfect" lives with a sincere and truthful book to be read by others is a great place to start.
"I'd rather speak honestly, and wear a tattered heart on my sleeve. Cause in the middle of my brokenness ... Redemption is here." Sanctus Real, The Redeemer
No comments:
Post a Comment