We are all guilty of being completely submissive to the power of social media. In this day and age, if you don’t have a Facebook or Snapchat, you’re given a crazy look and questioned why.
You’re on a vacation, seeing amazing things and enjoying a new culture.. but are you really absorbing it? Are you posting a picture, but not fully appreciating the moment? Are you at dinner with your loved one, not conversing because you are both sitting with heads down, and eyes trapped in your phone? Are you at the park with your kids, snapping a photo of them to post your “park day..” and are they begging for you to watch them go down the slide- because you’re too busy talking about the moment, rather than living through the experience. We’re all guilty of this. If we aren’t posting, texting, etc. we almost feel as though we’re missing out. When the truth is, it’s the exact opposite way around.
You’re missing the way the petals of a flower gently sway in the breeze, or how the stem softly bends when a drop of water weighs down the leaves. You’re missing the sound of the ocean as the waves are crashing against the shoreline. You’re missing the vast moment when the sky changes from fiery red to a cool shade of grey as the sun sets. You’re missing out on how your mother is fully indulging in your presence during the short duration of your visit. You’re missing how the birds sing the loudest in the morning. You’re missing the contagious joy of a stranger’s baby’s smile in the buggy at the grocery store. You’re missing so much… that you don’t even realize it.
You don’t realize that by posting evidence of your day to day life.. is causing a strong disconnection with the world around you.
The facade of people’s “realty” is often misguided with intended misinterpretation.
Everyone wants to portray an image of happiness, success and wealth. We live in a world where people thrive on social media, yet face to face interaction is slowly dissipating. We fixate and obsess over the idea of being noticed so much.. that we fail to realize we are hiding behind secret lives. Relationships seem perfect, filters offer complete image changes and the number of likes seemingly depicts just how popular someone is.
It’s important to ground yourself every once in a while. Is healthy to put your phone down and go for a walk in the park, without feeling inclined to connect to the web and share with “the world” what it is you’re doing. It’s nice to converse with a stranger, without having the time to judge who they are based on their public profile. It’s wonderful to experience life of the living, as opposed to be a walking zombie through means of technological connections. It’s more personal to hear someone’s voice- to see their smiling eyes, rather than attempting to read their emotions through text messages.
It’s imperative to grasp reality of living, and not just the image of it.
Put your phone down every once in a while, and look up at the world around you. Connect with your reality, and you’ll see how beautiful life actually is.