What People Do NOT Post on Social Media
I’d been having a few bad days in a row. Dropped my phone in the toilet before church … power outage during an online class with 1500 people registered … that kind of bad. And you know what I was thinking? About what people do not post on social media.
People rarely share the bad stuff online – they usually share only the good stuff. Very few of my friends know that my zipper was down while I was singing in the choir, or that my necklace ripped right off as I was walking on stage.
What we see on social media is often beautiful food or smiling families. People rarely share the ordinariness of daily lives. It’s boring, right?
Then I started to think about homeschoolers. Homeschoolers tend to compare their own bad days with the online persona of other homeschoolers, only those good days. I think that’s why we aren’t supposed to compare our own family to other families. It just hurts. They are normal people, just like you, with normal strengths and weaknesses (and normal irritations and real teenagers too)!
Don’t be discouraged by what you are shown online. Parents post about their awesome homeschool when they have a good day. You have some good days, too. When you see a post about a public school providing a wonderful, enriching opportunity to students, it’s the same thing. They are posting about that one good day, not all ordinary days. Believe me, my children went to public school for 1st through 4th grade, and it’s not all good news there!
Never compare. Someone always gets hurt. Trust me. What have you NOT shared on social media today?
Did you know that social media can make you sad or depressed? Read my new book to learn more: TechnoLogic: How to Set Logical Technology Boundaries and Stop the Zombie Apocalypse.
This is so true! Thank you for this reminder. 🙂
Liz, Have you ever heard the song Stain Glass Masquerade by Casting Crowns? Their message is all about “the plastic smiles” and thinking they have it altogether and you don’t.
TRUTH!!!! I am so over FAKEBOOK!!!