I like to talk. Given the chance, those who know me best will tell you that, in fact, I love it. Maybe more than anything. Except bread. God knows I’ll gladly give you a kid for a warm loaf of bread with honey butter. Add a Diet Coke to that order and you can have both my beautiful offspring.
But since My Space (remember that?), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Pinterest, Etsy, and countless other social media channels have entered my life and each taken a turn at being my primary diversionary obsession, I find that I am….tired.
For me, that’s a painful fact to reconcile…the idea of being tired of talking. In my world, that’s blasphemy.
However, the truth is that social media can be a little like a parasite eating away at my will to remain appropriate. There are so many venues to express myself and yet, I can’t escape the feeling that these channels are just countless new / additional places where I must be a pale version of myself.
The Internet, after all, is forever. And that means those of us who don’t get paid to get our freak on for the amusement of the World Wide Web must think before we speak (or write). Bummer.
Don’t get me wrong, I love social media. But too often, playing in the social sandbox feels a bit like being continually sized up by the cool kids — the ones always looking to see if you measure up. Are you funny but not crass? Smart but not nerdy? Opinionated but not alienating?
Sigh. Perhaps I am the only one yearning for authenticity. Honesty. The full picture. But alas, there’s just too much pressure to appear a certain way online.
Too tired to even fake it anymore. Sad, isn’t it? My husband, too, is dismayed.
In the beginning of the online social revolution, the feeling that we were together yet alone was exhilarating. After all, what was the chance someone we knew was really going to come across that blog post?
Not anymore. In a few short years social media has created unprecedented levels of global human connectedness. And that’s fantastic. But it also means that everyone is going to see that picture of you playing tip cup. Last weekend. With your kids in the background doing virgin jello shots.
It’s kind of exhausting.
Then again, I’m sure this is just my problem. And in spite of everything, I always did like running with the popular crowd. So breaks I may take, but I will always be back.
Maybe soon, dear social media, we can drop the charade and really get to know each other. In a totally appropriate way, of course.
Filed under: 'Me' time, Humor, Random Thoughts | Tagged: blogging, Etsy, Facebook, Humor, LinkedIn, MySpace, Pinterest, social media, social networking, Twitter, WordPress, writing |
Time to Make The Brownies 
I go back and forth over whether I should I drop out of social media all together, but then I wonder what in the world I would do all day…
@mamagirl — My husband — who if you can believe it — put off joining Facebook until around five months ago, says that to him it feels like one more thing he has to ‘check off the list.’ I don’t feel that obligation. If I’m not feeling it, I don’t do it. But then sometimes I actually feel guilty about that…like I’m somehow being antisocial. What is that all about? LOL.
I feel that way ALL THE TIME.
Yep. Something else I didn’t put in there, but I know you and I have talked about, is how it can sometimes be depressing to feel that everyone is so stinkin’ happy. As Holly says, ‘it’s no good to compare other people’s outsides to your insides.’ Yet sometimes I do it still….
Oh Laura, I love the way you write : ) Seriously, it makes so much sense, while being so entertaining and witty (virgin jello shots, ha). I have gotten more and more wary of that fact that what goes on the internet stays on the internet forever…it is becoming less and less appealing to me to add anything to it. But at the same time, I can’t quite take the step to delete my facebook account…but I’m not “joining” anything else. It all just takes too much away from the “real life” stuff I want to do
And the add the maddening task of typing on my phone and my comment being added before I was ready…it’s enough to make a person lose it!!! Anyway, it seems the majority of people feel the way you describe, but none of us seem to be able to tear ourselves away. It’s a wierd cycle…
Oh yes…smart phones can be so dumb.
Ashley! You are a doll…thank you! I’ve been sneaking on and off your blog looking for pictures of you and your ‘herd’ of men. Beautiful, every one. We miss you guys. Give a holler if you’re ever in Raleigh…
Status updates about “breakfast” and “good workouts” are the only things that separate us from the animals.
LOL. Touche, my friend.
My wife and I put off getting smart phones until this summer, and now I feel like I am on mine all the time. I write, but am not a salesman by nature, so I find balancing the use social media for marketing with really getting to know people quite exhausting.