Do you ever spend hours on social media and think that everyone has a better life than you? That you are the only one struggling while everyone else is living their best life? I can’t be the only one. Social media is powerful: it can bring people together, but also tear them apart. It can be a great way to connect with friends and family, but it can also be a gateway to comparison, envy, jealousy, and even depression.
Not a super happy way to start off the blog huh? Unfortunately, this is the reality we live in. A generation is growing up constantly surrounded by social media. I do in fact remember when there was no Instagram or Twitter, and when Facebook was a thing that only a few of my friends had. I guess I was the odd duckling though because I never even had MySpace.
So how do we live authentically? Does that mean we post selfies of us when we aren’t wearing makeup and our hair is a mess? Does this mean we just don’t post on social media? Do we find an inspiring quote and write an honest caption about the struggles we are currently facing?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I am probably in the camp that things we share too much on social media. I think it is possible to share too much, and that can be a very fine line. Transparency and honesty can be difficult, but do our social media friends need to know those things? Or do we need to keep our transparency and honesty reserved for our close friends that we are sharing a cup of coffee with face to face?
I’ll be real with you: I struggle with the thought of deleting social media. How will I know what is happening? How will I be informed about possible job opportunities? What do I do with some of my jobs that are social media driven? I think God is working on my heart and slowly but surely I will be deleting social media. It sounds silly, but I started small. First I deleted Snapchat. Then I went through and deleted people from Instagram that I didn’t need in my feed: people I compared myself to, people that weren’t truly my friends, people that only liked to gossip. Maybe the next step is deleting the Facebook app from my phone, or only letting myself check it a limited number of times per day.
Not everyone needs to know your business. What happened to letting their be an air of mystery around someone? I am speaking to the choir here I promise. I had a blog where I wrote some really personal things that belonged in a journal as opposed to a public internet forum.
I think reserving the honest, hard, truthful parts of our lives for those closest to us IRL is how we live authentically. We keep a close circle of trusted people around us who will hold us accountable, call us out on our crap, and love us no matter what. We can have days where we highlight the coffee we spilled on ourselves in the car, no makeup/messy hair/post workout selfie, or how we are just struggling in general. But I think the specifics should remain close to our heart.
In a world full of filters, let’s be a bright light for Jesus. Let’s live in the most authentic way we can. How are you living authentically? I would love to know!
