I rarely post a long status, but I feel this is important. This former self recognized social media addict (me) had a revelation and I thought I would (ironically) share it here. I recently read an article and I swear the author of this article lives in my head; however, within the main message of the article, there was a section about social media. For the past few days I have been struggling to figure out my fascination with social media. Every time Im at a stoplight I immediately open Instagram. When I wake in the morning the first thing I do is scroll through Facebook and when I have gone far enough, I go to Snapchat and look at some my stories and then go back to Facebook to look around some more. When I started to realize it, I noticed I have become this robot who is, as hard as it is to admit, subconsciously living through others highlight reel or others perfect stories that make up our profiles on social media… Seeing the places I am not at or the lives that I am not living. While we have all looked at others pictures or status and compared ourselves by thinking I wish I was there, or I wish that was me, there is also so much good about social media. I am able to keep in touch with so many people I otherwise may have lost contact with. I stay up to date with all of the fun things happening in my friends lives. I learn about major news events through personal updates. I hear about new restaurants to try, events to go to, or social causes I want to be apart. I realize what a small world it is when two friends I know from different places end up knowing each other. Frankly, social media is a big part of my personal and even my professional life (love Linkedin). Figuring out the social media balance is something our generation is just going to have to continue to figure out with trial and error. Is deleting an account the right approach? No, because then I truly miss out on so many exciting updates. On the flip side, we can all agree that some of us sit on Facebook and continue to refresh the page until theres a new update… Or even worse, we continue to contemplate the number of likes on a post when really, who cares if other people like what you posted and since when has it ever been a good idea to gain self validation from others? So, as a result I have deleted these popular social media apps on my phone. I will stop looking at them a go-to and instead, I will start living my own reel a little bit more. I love documentation, photography, videos etc. and I plan to start a blog for myself that other people can look at that (free from outside validation). Sure, Ill continue to use social media, but moderation is key. From the highlight reel, to the blooper reel, the outtakes and the scenes that I wish were cut in my life, the most important thing is to be present, because (I know its cliche), but we only have one life so we need to make the most of it :)
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 23:27:42 +0000
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