QOTD #5

“It's that need to be liked, that need to be seen, that need to be validated, in a way, through no one that you know. And so people ask the question about fame, or what it feels like, and it seems like everybody knows what that feels like. It seems like everyone's cultivating their lives on Instagram or on different forms of social media, and what pictures looks best of their day... It's this very modern ‘keeping up with the Joneses.''- Emma Stone

The fact that I’m blogging is an affirmation that I am putting my thoughts out there. Anyone is free to do so; it is a constitutional right even. This right has been interpreted to have the side effect or rather the accompanying responsibility and consequence of the writer being construed in whatever way the reader wants his thoughts to be, even if it seems as far off and as twisted as to how it was conceptualized originally in my thoughts. In short, what I mean depends on how you read it. Which is kind of far off from the quote. Just getting it off the bat though since it is talking about social media and that is a prevalent fear among “shunners” of it anywhere. Or maybe they’re just too old to understand it.

But this is from someone young, popular, wealthy, and pretty. The perfect epitome of the Joneses’. Why not splash it all over the world as defined by social media? That’s an impactful statement up there.

I have this love-hate relationship with social media. I love the ability to talk to friends and family miles away. But I dislike the need (it builds up in me) to want to post everything and eagerly await for ‘likes’. Gasp. Yup, it’s the sad truth. Even if what I was posting was spiritual stuff. And that’s why I got off my personal account and am maintaining another right now. 

I remember getting a text from a friend one time. It was a couple of months already after I had gotten off of Facebook. She said that she remembered me because she bumped into our other friend the other day. I remembered just feeling so genuinely delighted hearing from her then scheduled a meet up in the future because I really wanted to catch up. Like talk and not just force myself to conjure some other topics because I knew her life via social media. (Although this particular friend of mine is not a POST-ER at all. She doesn’t upload pictures of her AT ALL. And you can’t tag her.)

Is it evil? Is it vacuous? Does it feed on our vanity? While there is a danger of being all of the above, I still believe that it is an efficient, effective, inexpensive tool for spreading goodness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether that's through updates on God's goodness in your family, an answered prayer, an encouraging quote or verse, a God honoring relationships, or ministry praise reports, We do need to rely on God's strength, wisdom though to keep our hearts in check. And to whittle away the desire to seek for validation based on the perception of people around us.