I am REALLY starting to loathe social media.
Of course, there's always the positives.... BUT the negatives...
It's like going back to junior high for some, though.
You know, when some people get like dozens of "likes" for a photo, and others, very few.
Typing this out even feels a bit childish.
It's like this past Mother's Day.
I decided to go down my newsfeed and click like on every Mother's Day post/photo I saw. I bet I clicked like or commented AT LEAST 50 times.
But I know I have friends that say "fb is just another way to feel those same insecurities I had during the teen years, when some people are showered with attention and some get very little".....
And let's face it, even in adulthood we all want to be loved, accepted, given validation...
And of course now we not only have ourselves we watch out for, but our children as well.
I guess I didn't realize just how deeply this went for some people.... until recently.
I'd posted a photo of Ally leaving us at the MTC.
I get notifications that people like or comment on the photo, but I don't keep track of how many.
We were out with friends one night and a few of them and I (two males) were chatting about how it had been dropping Ally off. I told them that once we left her she had walked away smiling and never looked back.... and that I'd gotten a great photo of it. They both looked it up on their phones and one said to me "that picture has so many likes there's no way I'm liking it! If I see a photo has lots of likes, I don't click like for it."
I have to say, I was a bit taken back. That has never crossed my mind. If I like a photo, I click it. And since then, I've tried to like LOTS of photos. But I do find myself thinking now "okay, that person already has a bunch of likes, I'm going to only click like on this persons photo because it hardly has any." When in the past, I just tried to like everyone's stuff.
Dumb.... dumb dumb dumb.
And who would've known that some people keep track of how many "friends" other people have? (something else I was made aware of recently).
And reading back through this, I'm even wigged out a bit.
But I do have to say this... I'd be much more worried about receiving validation for myself by how many likes I get on something than if I feel badly NO ONE liked it.
Does that make sense?
Should we worry about or care what other people think?
In some ways, yes. In most ways, no.
Why can't we all just be happy for everyone when good things come along?
Romans 12:15 ~ "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep."
Mosiah 18:8-9 ~ "... and to be called His people, and are willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light; Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort..."
*sigh*