On Social Media
I have a confession. I have a love/hate(mostly hate) relationship with social media. It is one of the hyped up realities of life I have just not been able to fully get with. I’m sure there are productive and healthy ways to use it for my benefit but I’m yet to find the magic formula. I’ve tried it all: Facebook and Tumblr for 2 years, Twitter for 2 months, Instagram for 2 seconds. You get the point. On one occasion, an acquaintance-disgusted that she could not “follow” me on any platform asked me “Are you even alive?”. Y’ALL. Up until this point I did not know the only way to be alive was inside a 2 dimensional screen. Is it no longer enough to be alive in real life???
As social media becomes more integrated into our lives, everything seems relevant ALL THE TIME. The growth and introspection designed for our hearts and minds is often sprawled across computer screens for the world to witness.
If we are all on stage who is watching??
Listen, I’m all for posting selfies that celebrate being alive and black girl magic and woohoo look at the beautiful things I am creating. I also love when I can grasp hope from someone who has made it through a shared struggle. All good things. In the same breath, we have to be real with ourselves when our perception of who we are becomes intrinsically tied with how the world sees us. We have to be real with ourselves when we are grasping to find our joy, our healing, our love inside other people’s lives.
Lately, I have been asking myself: Do the people and brands I follow on social media draw me closer to my true self? Is what I am about to post true/beautiful/inspiring or does it add noise and distraction to the world? Coming to terms with the reality of my social media experiences helps me navigate my accounts in ways that work for me-not against me.
More than ever, our world needs us to live and speak our truth. And I don’t mean self love and unicorns that makes you feel fluffy and content until you scroll to the next post. I mean the kind of truth that shifts hearts. Makes you get off your butt, reexamine your existence, and change something about your life. When is the last time you got that on Instagram?