However it remains a strange time for our culture right now.
So much of our lives aren't being lived in reality anymore, but they're being played out on social media.
This is a great letdown because none of us have a reality that stacks up to social media.
Now I don't exaggerate my life on social media, but I do strive to keep it positive. Not because I want people to think I'm perfect (just spend some time with me), but because I think there's enough negativity online. I make an effort to only share things that are fun or funny or encouraging online. I have no desire to share my worst moments with the entire internet. *not that I have a lot of 'worst' moments. Earlier this summer I shared that I had been let go from a ministry position that I loved. But even in the midst of that negative event I worked awful hard to not overshare my confusion and hurt. Lots of people showed up in my life to pray with Shannon and I face to face, and even more reached out in the form of phone calls and messages to lift us up and encourage us. And all of that helped in a huge way. It made it easy to share something funny on Facebook. My heart genuinely breaks for people who don't have PEOPLE to share with like that.*
In fact very few of us have a life that measures up to what we post on social media. Most of you don't look like the selfies you post. Most of you don't really live the Bible verses, inspirational quotes, positive memes, or motivational sayings you share daily.
Sometimes that's because we just want to keep our pain private (or in a tight circle of family and friends) and be a positive person in public. But all too often it's because we feel the need to conform to the culture we see.
Having spent so much time with teenagers I can attest to the power that peers have to override wise decisions with an almost addiction to fitting in. And this scares me because those people often turn into adults who surrender their ability to choose to what the people next to them are doing.
And we love to see people make bad choices with us. We somehow suspect that our sin won't count if it's watered down with an entire group chasing that sin.
Look at the online backlash that Yvonne Orji is facing after confessing that at the age of 33 she's still a virgin and is saving herself for marriage. The social media claws came out. It's almost like people are angry that she's making a moral choice that they're not.
So what do we do? How do we cope? My best advice would be to unplug. Uninstall those apps on your phone and just go to those sites and log in if you NEED to. Set aside some time each day to catch up with family and friends online, and stop checking in constantly.
What if you spent an entire week and didn't share things that other people had written or didn't share/forward pictures or memes that someone else created? What if just once a day you WROTE what you wanted to post and then logged off?
What if you took all those minutes and invest them in reading your Bible? Or talking to your mother? Or doing pushups? Or drawing a picture?
No comments:
Post a Comment