Sometimes you are the leader,
sometimes you are the follower. I constantly wonder why we are
required to wear different faces situationally. Sure, we do follow
the unspoken rule of there being a time and a place for every action
and the way in which we all react to certain things, but do we often
take this too far? Acting like someone we are not for any reason
does not sit very well with me, though it was a role I played often
in the past.
Have you ever noticed how someone can
act all confident and arrogant on social media, but when you see them
in person, they are not that way at all? I know someone very much
like this who will speak their mind about anything and often look
very foolish in the process from the confines of the internet.
However, if you were to see him/her in public, you would be greeted
with the most shy and socially disconnected person you have ever met.
(Don't worry, you don't know who I am talking about). I hate
situations like this because they seem to be destroying us and the
way we communicate with each other for the sake of reality.
There have been very outspoken authors
in the past who wrote amazing literature for the masses to read and
touched many lives for the better or worse who were nothing at all
like their pen names personified in the real world. This is nothing
new and has been going on for centuries; often coming from the minds
of some very brilliant people, though this is not the same as the
issue we are having today. The authors in the literary sense were
using their writing as a well-thought-out form of expression in the
only way they knew how to. When you do something so time consuming
as writing a book, you put much thought into what is going down on
the pages and authors will re-read what they write numerous times to
be sure everything is translating properly from their mind into text.
There is a big difference between being expressive on social media
as opposed to drafting a novel. Let me explain.
While an author tends to spend
elongated periods of time making sure their writings are proper and
expressive, the average social media “expressionist” is simply
hiding and putting on a role as someone they are not in the real
world for a sense of perceived, momentary brilliance. I am not
judging anyone for acting this way, because if I am I must point the
finger at myself first; I have been that person, and it took me a
few years to figure out just what a terrible, childish existence that
world really holds. We expose ourselves far too much and we do not
at all know what the future holds for this activity, which is what
has scared me away from it in a way. Things that everyone did
collectively as being socially normal in the past more often than not
had really hard ramifications following closely after. Smoking was
just fine, because everyone else was doing it at one point. Fast
food was just an easy way to eat lunch until we found out the
majority of this “food” was synthetic. Asbestos was the
insulator of choice for homes because everyone thought it was great
until cancer came into the picture.
Do you see what I mean? We fool
ourselves into thinking that just because everyone else on Facebook,
Twitter, or Instagram is posting up multiple times each day that we
should as well. We share, and share, and share, often under the
persona of someone we really are not. This is done to make our lives
look more interesting than they actually are or use words or pictures
as a way to boost our egos because we know people will click that
“like” button or leave a comment if we play those emotional
strings just right. Again, I am not judging at all, and have no
problem with throwing a random blurb or picture up on social media
(heck, I'm doing it RIGHT NOW) but we need to all be more careful
about what it is we are posting online. Baby albums were for
private, family moments when I was a kid, now they are on Facebook,
permanently...forever...(we don't need anymore naked babies on
Facebook). Embarrassing comments, pictures or videos we post for the
world to see can very well come back to haunt us decades down the
road. Private or not, if you put it on the internet, it is out there
for the long haul.
All of these reasons are why I have
picked life-blogging over Facebook. By nature, I believe I am a
writer, so the more thought I put into my content, the less likely I
will receive backlash for anything I happen to post. Putting up a
status is easy and can often come back to slap you in the face if you
are not paying attention. Being sarcastic and judgmental to others
on a whim because something they put online makes your blood boil in
the moment can be pretty harmful; I have had to stop myself numerous
times. None of this is worth it to me anymore. I want to be who I
am, on my own terms. I want to be remembered as one person, a never
a separate identity from my true character. No longer will I play a
role for anyone, because I like consistency, and being the same
person regardless of the situation.
Grace and Peace,
-Drew
Current Song: Bloc Party - This Modern Love
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/drew.silvers
Email: drewcoustic@gmail.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/drewcoustic
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