My Insta Life Part 12
So why my Insta Life?
I got the inspiration to use this title for the first section of my blog because I have been challenged about the similarity to the challenge that people have today with not ‘feeling’ they are enough.
So many people live their lives vicariously on Social Media. I do not have a problem with Social Media. What does vicarious mean? Experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another.
What I am saying is that we tend to live our lives through the experiences of others. We change the way we feel about ourselves based on the experiences of others. You see, Social Media is all about posting our highlights reel. We want people to see what we are doing in our lives. We want to share our experiences. None of that is wrong, in fact it is quite healthy to share good times with our friends.
The problems arise when we start sharing posts in order to gain likes or followers. When our lives do not match those of our friends and so we feel the need to create good times. Times that are not necessarily happening. We want people to think that we are doing just fine when in actual fact we are not.
No-one wants to know what our real lives are all about.
I liken it to this very common practice. When you walk in to a room and you greet someone with Hi, how are you? You really don’t want to know how they are? If the person responds with a real comment on how they are feeling, we tend to back away or worse still we don’t ask them again or we try to avoid that person. “How are you?” has become a greeting – not a real question of interest about how the person is really feeling.
I have watched as people have been torn down by “helpful” comments when they have shared about hard times they may be experiencing – it is heartbreaking. I have also been there when a group of people have begun to talk about that person as someone only sharing this so they can get sympathy or they are attention seeking. It is really sad because that is not always the case.
However, it can become that way. It can for some, be the only way they can get noticed. For some it is a cry for help. For others it is simply sharing the truth about this journey called life.
Life is beautiful. Life is beautiful and hard. There is a balance. Our lives are not all fun and games and wonderful experiences. Our lives are filled with hard times, difficult situations and not so pleasant experiences. That is life.
It isn’t about what life throws at us, it is what we do with it and how we walk it.
Captivating Freedom 