I woke up like this!

Snap!

Confession:  I have a love/hate relationship with social media.  I believe it is causing the death of true socialization and human interaction everywhere.  Yet, I use it to promote my blog and I use it to write funny quips on twitter about my favorite TV shows – still waiting for Andy Cohen to notice my endless Bravo tweets – hasn’t happened yet, but a girl can dream!  I love Snapchat and have cried from laughter over snaps (also pondered going to a salon to get those lashes in real life).  I’ve remarked to my husband several times how I want him to get the Snapchat app so I can send him cute snaps – he refuses.  I’ve also said that the folks who invented Snapchat are serious GENIUSES.  I don’t do Instagram or YouTube, but I consider it because I want to continue to shamelessly promote myself and my writing (HA!).  Our world is driven by the internet and social media - we cannot escape it.

Here’s the flip side to social media – it doesn’t promote REAL relationships.  Some of the “friends” on my Facebook page, I have not seen in years and some of them I don’t even “follow” because their posts annoy me to no end and some of them I’m certain do the same to me.  That’s another thing – why do we “unfollow” people, yet not “unfriend” them.  It’s like there’s some new, weird social media etiquette that says – I don’t like you enough to look at your posts, but I don’t dislike you enough to completely “unfriend” you.  Huh??? Perhaps it’s the terminology, “unfriend” sounds very unfriendly and kind of mean.

Are these folks truly your friend? 1000+ friends – really? Unless you’re a celebrity or it's your business page - you cannot honestly tell me that you’re truly FRIENDS with all those people! That just doesn’t make sense to me.  I suppose it depends on your definition of friend, but it doesn’t fit mine, for certain.

It’s also – fake.  I mean, as I stated before, I love Snapchat, but I don’t really look like that! The filters take away all the flaws and give you great lips, lashes, and cute little ears and voice changers, etc.  They distort the reality, which can be fun and funny, but also confusing. You’ve also heard a million times – that people only post or show what they want you to see or what they think looks best (http://saratate3.blogspot.com/2017/07/i-look-fat.html).  A good friend of mine said Facebook or Instagram are people’s “highlight reel” – not their real life.  

I was watching this video recently (it’s been floating around for a while) about millennials. In the video it talks about how people (particularly millennials) are longing for connection, yet they aren’t really connecting.  It also talked about how looking at Facebook (and I’m sure other social media) actually lends itself to depression.  Human beings need to be able to look each other in the eye, read each other’s body language, touch one another, and speak with each other in order to truly build a relationship and bond.  You cannot get the same authentic and genuine interaction with someone online as you can in person.  I’m not saying you can’t connect, but I am saying, it’s not the same and it’s not as good.

I’ll leave you with this story – I’ve been off for summer “break” and not on my regular schedule and slowly my depression has started to creep up on me again.  I mentioned it to my acupuncturist and he told me, get out of your house and be amongst people.  Get out.  I made a conscious effort to set up different meetings on different days (giving me something to look forward to throughout the week) with three of my closest and dearest friends.  I spent hours listening, talking, laughing, praying and enjoying their presence each time.  One thing every single one of them did when they saw me, was hug me.  Hug me so close and so tight, saying, “Hi my friend, I’ve missed you and I am so glad to be with you now.”  It was exactly what I needed.   I encourage you today – get off whatever device you’re on – and connect with people in real life!  It will make a world of difference!