So I went to update my facebook status yesterday then stopped typing and just stared at the screen. I quickly deleted the words from the box. I realized that it sounded so sad and, I’ll admit, pretty pathetic. After that I went through all of the most recent facebook and twitter statuses posted on my page. I noticed that I am not the only one that has fallen into this trap of sounding so miserable and pitiful.
It’s funny to look up and down a page of different posts to see that over half of them consist of people complaining about their lives!!!! If you tried it I guarantee you will see the same thing. Obviously, I’m not exempt from this group because I am definitely guilty of sharing how awful my classes are or how stressed I may be from time to time. But seriously, I feel like social media sites have just become a platform for people to tell the world how terrible their week was and get a response from someone telling them that everything will be ok. If I wanted that pep talk I would just call up my mom. The only reason I keep up with the sites that I do is so that I can stay in touch with people I don’t get to see on a daily basis and be able to know what goes on in their lives. I hate logging on and having to go through 100 complaints before I can get to only a few exciting or happy things that may have happened. I thought that being social on the internet was supposed to be fun and give people an opportunity to stay easily connected with family and friends. Now, it’s just a place for others to learn about how overdramatic and whiny others can be. I mean people even complain about facebook ON facebook. Come on, really?! I encourage everyone to read this article about social media sites. I’m sorry it’s a little sarcastic, but it is 100% true.
Like I said, I’m no saint and I tend to do a little ranting on the internet, but I keep that down to a bare minimum. All I ask is for others to read before they post something. You may realize that who you are making yourself out to be through social media is not who you really are.
Crystal Friedman 
Leave a comment