Social Media – the Ugly Truth

I have a love/hate relationship for social media. Sometimes it’s very resourceful – you can connect and keep in touch with family, friends and associates near and far; you can find good groups to join; you can find great businesses; get great laughs at the latest memes and videos, etc.  But there are also times where it can be a distraction, a way of life, and quite frankly an annoyance.

In this day and age, our phones are always in our hands. I sat and observed this behavior over the course of time and it bothered me.  We have parties just to record what we’re doing so we can post it.  We are home with our families and can’t even watch a whole movie without scrolling through timelines or snapping a pic of what we’re watching, who we’re with and what we’re eating. We can’t even go to the mall without either taking a pic of where we are and what we’re doing or “checking in” so people can know we’re eating good, shopping good, and “living” well.  We take vacations just to snap and post every detail of our day.  We record violence and tragedies as if we’re in Hollywood.  We laugh at the expense of sometimes underserving people just because.  We post and make fun of any and every thing.  We are hypersensitive to some topics and not sensitive enough to others.  In a sense social media has turned us into robots and we don’t even realize it.

How often in a day do you tap on the app and scroll through your timeline? How much wasted time in a day do you spend observing other people live their lives while you scroll and watch like a movie?  How often are you actually present in moments of your life?

A typical day in the life of the average person – wake up, social media; poop, social media; gets in car (good lighting, snaps pic, scrolls through filters, post); while driving, get to a stop light, social media; get to work and settled, social media; bathroom and lunch breaks, social media; get off work, social media; gets home with family, records/snaps pic of dinner (social media); lay in bed at night before going to bed, social media. Only to wake up tomorrow and repeat.  That doesn’t sound robotic to you?

Has this really become our way of life? Are we so consumed with capturing moments with our phones that we’re actually missing out on the true essence of moments that are supposed to matter?  Quite frankly, any moment you’re alive is a moment that matters and not all moments need to be snapped, recorded and posted.

On a personal note:

I randomly take breaks from social media. I may deactivate my accounts or just remove the app from my phone.  Sometimes I take breaks because I find myself getting annoyed at the things I see on my timeline.  Other times I take breaks because find myself feeling some kind of way after seeing certain things (my main emotion with social media is annoyance/irritation/disgust).  And then there are times when I take breaks because I find myself consumed with it and I don’t like it; I hate it, actually.  I hate that it’s become a way of life in the sense that every free minute I have, I’ll pick up the phone to scroll through my timeline or want to snap a pic to post (and I don’t even post a lot, but the urge is definitely there).  I don’t like that it takes up so much of my time that I could spend doing things that matter.

I have purposely become intentional about putting my phone down and walking away from it when I get home or I’m at an event. I refuse to be so anxious about capturing a moment that I actually miss out on that moment.

There’s a reason Erykah made the song “I can make you put your phone down”. Why would a song like that need to be made in this era? Because somebody or something needs to make you put your phone down!

Today and every day this year and beyond, be intentional about being present in moments of your life and PUT YOUR PHONE DOWN!

Please don’t think you owe anybody an explanation as to why you’re taking a break from it all. Sometimes a break is necessary.  There is actually real life outside of social media, make sure you’re living it.

As always, thanks for reading. Like, share and comment. I hope you were encouraged.