Facebook Lies Are Haunting Us...

If you know me in person, a response like that shouldn't surprise you.

A few months ago, I went into some details about people who are artificially or unrealistically happy, but after some consideration, I think there are a few little bits to accompany that blog (you can read it here if you want to).

I believe what I missed when writing about perceived and actual happiness or positive actions before was their link to the legacy we are all going to leave behind at some point in time.  Living in the world of Facebook and Twitter, too many of us (not just Millennials, but every living generation) have a weird obsession with making our lives look more interesting or "pure" than they actually are.

Sticking with the idea of purity I mentioned, allow me to explain what I meant by that.  I have a memory that never stops and I remember essentially everything from the moment I read or experience it, without question.  Some say having an abnormally strong memory is a gift, and it is, but sometimes having such an attribute makes you think and ponder a bit too much.  Case in point: the purists on Facebook stick in my head.  These are the people who bask in the higher point of life and throw all sorts of happy, excited, vomit-worthy positivity (some religious, some not) all over their feed as well as continually "share" pictures with a forward-driven message, all the while touting how awesome their life is or bragging about their good deeds.  The catch is, when things begin to go south in their life, or (usually smaller) instances do not work out exactly as planned, out comes the dirty laundry and hateful comments.  Well, thus is the internet.  You can be whatever you want to be.  It is not as if someone can back track your history on Facebook or remember everything you...wait...  Still, others post little blurbs of enlightenment without the occasional snap and end up looking a little too perfect.  I am one who is all for being encouraged and pushing others in the right direction, but if all anyone sees are happy thoughts, butterflies, and mushy ideas that would make a monk feel uncomfortable, you look a bit insane.  The human psyche registers far too many emotions for someone to function in such a way with a full mental capacity.  Some things work well for businesses and organizations, but do not translate quite as well to individuals; such as the latter.

If you would like to read an interesting article on a study done about these questionable ideas, click here  because it is a good read and British.  British people are fun... 

You see, for quite a while, I was fairly anti-social media, but after starting this blog, those subscribing and reading wanted to know more about me and that goes hand-in-hand with doing anything similar in public view, as I have written about before.  The trick in all of this is honesty and not contradicting yourself or looking like a socially-depraved or disconnected lunatic at the same time - know your boundaries.  I think some of us have lost the idea that having social media accounts is always a choice, not a life requirement.  There are a few friends on my list who rarely post anything and I like that; and some who post once a day, which I also like; at the same time I have a slew of the same people I mentioned in the previous paragraph as well.  Going back to a few months ago, I had nearly one-thousand "friends" on here and knocked that down to one-hundred-seventy-five over the span of an evening; because there are some people who are so much cooler in-person without the online veil clouding my vision and others who...well, no comment.

"Well what the heck does this have to do with a legacy like you mentioned in the intro?"  

Everyone who has ever lived has been given the opportunity to leave a legacy behind them.  Whether good or bad, the legacy remains permanent.  Within the current period of time, we are given the choice of having a digital life as well as a living and breathing life.  One is mandatory and one is optional.  Our digital life should be designed as a supplement to the way we live and compose ourselves everyday, and not as an outlet to be a completely different person all together.  Anything posted on the internet, regardless of your "privacy" settings exists on multiple servers in multiple places on earth and I guarantee you is not private.  I would hate to somehow pass on, leaving behind friends and family who see me as one person, and another set of friends or acquaintances who see me as someone else entirely.  

I fought that demon and killed it quite a while ago in my own life after being overly invested as two different people to the real world and a third person online.    

Now all you get is who I am, regardless of what you read or what I talk about face-to-face.  The reason is because life is far too short to have anybody believe you are better than you are or bigger than you are.  Simply being ourselves is no longer normal,  but it probably should be.

Leave behind one legacy.

The rest is not worth it.

Be a person instead of a character.

Grace and Peace,

    -Drew

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