Dear Social Media, we have to talk.
I love you because you are the reason Dr. Tania exists. But then I hate you, because you (can) suck.
BTW, we all suck.
By we, I mean me. And you.
Social media can suck worst of all.
Ouch. I just bit the hand that feeds me, I know.
Why am I so angry? Because I’m sitting here on my couch on a Saturday night with bed-head and dirty sweats on, but to look at my Facebook page or Instagram, one might get the impression that my weekends are spent lounging on fabulous beaches or sipping signature cocktails at trendy restaurants.
Yes, I am lucky enough to have some amazing, Instagram-worthy experiences. But much more of my life consists of the ho-hum mediocrity that makes up the real world.
The problem arises when I’m sitting home feeling like a loser as I scroll through your party-perfect life, or you talk smack about my latest beach pictures while you’re wiping toddler-poo off of your walls.
Guess what? We all have our version of toddler-poo on our walls, we’re just not sharing it with our “friends” and followers.
We suck because we portray to the world an opening-night performance on a daily basis, when really, much of our lives are messy, boring and downright un-Facebook worthy.
You know I’m right.
Another case in point is the dilemma of today’s college students. Social media is now considered the “fifth wall” of the dorm room. When I was in college, if we were homesick or lonely, we’d commiserate with a roommate or go sit in the student union and strike up a conversation over coffee. Today’s lonely college kids sit in their rooms, convinced that everyone else is having a better time than they are.
I asked a struggling college kid I knew which of her friends was having the time of their lives. I knew for a fact that the first three she mentioned had critical bouts of homesickness to the point where their parents had to intervene in person, yet they were portraying a life of partying perfection to their peers…..as was the original struggling college kid!
I don’t know the answer.
Should we start posting our schlumpy pictures? #reallife #loser #badhairday?
Yes.
Should we spend less time on social media and more time living our own lives?
Yes.
Should we realize that the pictures and status updates that we envy are just fleeting moments, and that most of us are on the hamster wheel of life? And that life is generally pretty mundane?
Yes, yes and yes.
So do me a favor: try to suck just a little less. And the next time you see a picture of me doing something fabulous, know that I’m quite likely posting it from my couch where I’ve been sitting so long I’ve grown roots, with my hair in a messy bun and a sweatshirt with stains on it. And I like it.
