Power Off

My kids, ages 23 and 19, and I were discussing how social media has ruined everything. I know there are some positives, but there are so many downsides to its use. Yet, I sit and scroll my phone browsing Instagram and Facebook for the latest news about family, friends and even strangers posing as friends. The song "Image of God" by We Are Messengers starts with the verse, "I woke up with a broken heart in my chest. I couldn't sleep, couldn't get no rest. Weighted down by the heaviness of life, and I, try to shake it flipping through my phone but all it does is make me feel all alone. How could anything that feels so wrong be right?". 

I feel like the use of social media, meant to bring us together, only makes us feel more divided. Back in my day (yes, I'm old enough to use that line), before you could get opinions from everyone in the world, the only opinions you heard were from those in your local neighborhood. That doesn't mean everyone you talked with shared the same views on everything, but at least you were sharing relatively the same living situation and could identify with each other a little more than someone across the world. Do you really care what someone from any other country thinks about our politics in the United States, let alone someone living in the furthest state from you? How are things in your own neighborhood? Should we be giving opinions on situations we are not directly involved with? "Keyboard warriors" certainly think they should! With being able to hide behind a screen, we sometimes think what we have to say is so important that everyone needs to hear it. I do realize, even with this post, that I am doing that very same thing, but people will give their opinion even if it is extremely hurtful. When we have face to face conversations, we are able to see expressions and realize the impact of our words. Things that would not be said in person are now spewed out all over social media pages sometimes making us feel like the minority when, in reality, the people living closest in our community share a very similar outlook.

Humans have the curse of self-comparison and have struggled with the desire to be like someone else from the beginning of time. It could be argued that is the reason why Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree and shared it with Adam. The serpent (the devil) said to Eve, "In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:5 (CSB) Growing up, I compared myself with the cliched "popular" girls; how they did their hair, how their body looked, how comfortable they were talking in class, and I never felt like I quite fit in with any group. Even well into adulthood, I still have to silence inner voices telling me how I'm not as good as someone else. Social media creators can take hours to get a perfect shot, a flawless picture and take even more time to edit them. Of course, by the time we see it, all we see is the finished product which seems like perfection. I follow a few running influencers who describe themselves as "slow runners". Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate their content because their pace looks more like mine, but why do we have to call it out as "slow"? I've also seen influencers who post their "slow runs" and I would love to be as fast as them! The circle of people we can compare ourselves to has gotten so much larger due to social media, making us feel like even less.  

Social media can give a false impression of how important you are to others. You can have thousands of friends on any given platform. I currently have (only) 180 "friends" on Facebook when, in actual daily life,  I have less than ten friends, outside of family, that I actually have time to get together with. Some of those "friends" I see at church on a weekly basis. They don't talk to me, and I don't to them when given the live and in-person opportunity, but I'll throw in my two cents on their latest post. Some Facebook friends don't ever comment or even give a "like" to any of my posts. All of this has added a weird and fake dynamic to our interactions. 

With all that said, am I going to delete any of my accounts? Probably not. I will keep sharing the things that seem important or funny enough that I think everyone in computer land needs to hear about. With this blog, I simply hope to remind myself that social media needs to be used with caution. If I find myself being sucked into the idea that I'm not fast enough, smart enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, NOT ENOUGH, I need to "power off" my phone or laptop and "power on" by opening my Bible to be reminded that "[I am] God's masterpiece. He has created [me] anew in Christ Jesus, so [I] can do the good things he planned for [me] long ago." Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)