Life moves on, sometimes without us. I’ve gotten a lot of lessons in that lately. Sometimes you have to pass on things and though you may regret it, your current circumstances just don’t allow you to take part. It can get easy to be caught up in our own lives, our own dramas (some we asked for, some we didn’t) as well as those random things that just happen to us, and we forget that the rest of the world still moves in a forward direction. And it does. It really does. We only realize this after we’ve lagged behind for a while, but no, life’s activities do not stop so we can catch our breath or re-join the rest of the pack.
Nope, The carousel keeps rolling along even if we have to sit out a ride or two or three or twelve. And that can be a nasty pill to swallow — the realization that maybe the only one who noticed you weren’t on board is…um…you.
I blame the culture of social media for being a culprit or at least a co-conspirator in perpetuating this sham, this myth, that the rest of the world gives a shit about us. I’ll explain.
The greatest realization of this arrives when our own lives seem to stop because something happens — we suffer a stumble in our work or personal life, we take a hit of some kind –maybe medically, financially or emotionally — or we might experience a major setback or loss like a job, a relationship, our dog, whatever it may be and in that moment nothing else matters, nothing else seems important, hell, you don’t even care if you’ve washed your hair that day. No tweets, no selfies, no bullshit political hoopla that we follow normally on a daily basis, minute by minute — NONE OF THAT MATTERS. Because all we can think about is that one piece (or several pieces) of poop that are flying right into the oscillating fan in that precise moment.
And then in a random spare moment of free time, numbness or disinterest in our current personal drama we go out to our usual play rooms of social media sites and we we see that people are still bickering, people are still touting their milestones (fake or otherwise), people are still lying and flirting and poking fun at the world around us and at individuals (some who may warrant it and others who don’t) and we can’t help ourselves for having an irrational thought that suddenly overtakes us and we want to scream out to the world:
It’s fascinating to watch our priorities and our perspective change as these thoughts overtake our life and creep into our timeline. We might normally be reluctant to ‘go there’ on our own pages when we are going through tough times. After all, we’re not exactly rewarded for it — in many cases, folks are scolded for being too open. Yes, when things are going well we take to social media and fritter away time talking all about it, celebrating it, sharing and bragging about it. But how about when it all goes to shit? Have you also witnessed people giving others a hard time for bringing too much truth to their social media page? I know I have. I’ve seen people torn apart for being too honest, too blunt about the events of their lives but nobody has a problem listening to it when it’s good news. Social media is about engagement, and what’s more engaging than truth?
I tossed out that question to you — provided you are sharing this information about yourself and not another person without their permission, is there such a thing as TOO truthful on social media? Do you see your pages as just your place to promote, celebrate, postulate, or is this also a place where you can shed your own skin and share your own battles for all to see and learn from, and for others to weigh in on, too? Hmm… Is your skin thick enough to accept that unsolicited feedback? I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the subject.
As always, thanks for reading. ~ Chris K.
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