Happiness Found Within

I am a Facebook junkie.  I’ll admit it.  Back when I first started with this craze, I played all the games and friended everyone that I knew from my past, old schoolmates, friends, co-workers and so on.

I would post pictures of my family and my husband and I.  I would also post pictures of things I thought were cool or places that we have been.

The one thing I swore I would not do, was make it an outlet for anger, or post something putting someone down to intentionally harm them.

I always try to keep it uplifting or funny.  I do like humor.  Actually, I think I’m hilarious.  So does my husband.  If I could change professions, I would become a comedian.  But that is off topic…. Back to Facebook.

My sister in law found this great article about ‘5 Questions To Ask Before Posting To Social Media’.  This really made me think.  I am guilty of these reasons.  I think we can all admit that we do.   A couple of them struck a chord with me personally.

Am I seeking approval?  Well, here I am writing a blog, and I’m sure people will respond to it once I post it on Facebook.  I’ll admit I love getting the red flag.  I love getting the attention.  I never thought that it might mean I desire community or have a lack of community.

Being a recent transplant to Seattle, I really don’t have any real friends or girl friends, well I think that I have one that is growing into a nice friendship that my husband and I have hung out with her and her boyfriend….but other than her, I have no one.  All of my friends are back home.  But when I was home, I thought I had no friends there….you know, like a girlfriend that you can count on for everything, someone that has your back no matter what.  I had a couple of friendships, but I was stabbed in the back.  Because of that, I closed myself off to making friends.  It was self-preservation from being hurt.  So I thought I was alone.  Once I moved out here, I realized that I had several friends thru our church and some great co-workers and I miss all of them.

Really the only approval we should be seeking is in God.  God is the only one that can fill that void in our lives.

The others that do this are those who post a passive aggressive post that leaves you puzzled because you don’t know what they are talking about.  Some post their dirty laundry online.  Sometimes this dirty laundry is about other members in their household.  Sometimes about their spouse or significant other.  Really?  If that is not a cry for attention, then I don’t know what is.  It is extremely inappropriate.  This is a person you are committed to love and protect and then you post your dirty laundry out there because you are mad?  Not cool.

Am I boasting? Well…..who hasn’t a bragging moment about our kids.  I get proud of them, which parent doesn’t?  What about a promotion that you have been working hard to get, or a new job?  So in a way it’s boasting, but it is also sharing in the glory of showing how proud we are.

The other side of it is showing off.  Look at my vacation.  Look at my body because I’ve been working out. Look at my dinner I’m about to eat (please quit posting pictures of your food).  Look at my plans for the weekend.  Look at my new car, clothes, house, furniture, etc… the list can go on and on.  Sometimes I am guilty of this.  We want to show off what we have or what we are doing to show off.  This is the truth.  The article called it ‘the adult show-and-tell’.  How true.  Again, who are you seeking approval from?  Is it God?  Or social media?

Is it kind?  I will admit that I find most of the someecards HiLaRiOuS!

Most of these are hilarious and make us laugh….but for the wrong reasons.  They are mocking meme’s.  Most are not kind.  They are meant to make fun of others.  People post them because they can relate to then because it’s about something in their life or because it reminds us of someone in our life.  If it were posted about you, wouldn’t you be hurt?  Since we have the freedom of speech, we feel that behind a computer screen we are invincible.  We can comment on anything and criticize whatever anyone wants to post about.  How is that ok?

Is that what Jesus taught us?  John 13:34 says, ‘So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.’  We need to remember that that the next time our fingers feel the need to type harsh words.  Words hurt.  And they cannot be erased.

Here is the link to the article that my sister in law posted today:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/tech/5-questions-ask-posting-social-media

It’s a good read.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 14th, 2014 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.