The Sunday Natter: if it's not on social media, it's not true

I don't know why it's become customary to share every detail of our life, in every single situation, on social media. I'll be the first one to hold my hands up and admit I'm guilty of heading straight to the internet whenever something positively pleasing or negatively nagging happens on a day to day basis. Gone are the days we embrace a moment instantly, and welcomed are the technology devices reached for before we even begin to process what's occurring in front of us. I suppose it's so common now that it's the norm but what's slightly worrying is how reliant people are on social media, how it's suddenly become the only valid source and how people believe everything they read and take in fallacious knowledge that isn't actually factual. There's so much I could say about this specific topic but in today's post I wanted to speak about what you see online and what goes on in reality and how quite clearly there's often a major difference.

Although it seems the general public do get a kick out of updating their entire friends list and followers on their latest adventures, happenings and even what they had for breakfast in the morning, it's not obligatory to share your entire schedule, feelings, emotions and general well being online for the whole world to see (whilst fearing judgement frequently). I for one tend to avoid the personal information and mishaps having an online involvement and can't help but feel because of this, nobody believes me when I decide to let them in on my story. It's got to the point where we're valuing life by what gets plonked on the internet instead of the reeling of legitimate honesty and that is pretty damn frightening. Just because it's not being posted online, doesn't mean it's not happening. 

There are many things people keep to themselves (trust me, I know) and usually there's a reason; either they don't feel comfortable doing so or don't feel it's necessary to announce to everyone around them. It's so easy to portray yourself as problem-free living the perfect la-di-dah existence but what some soon forget is how the selective parts of a life posted online are generally the best parts. What you see on screen is just a fraction of an individual life; look deeper beneath that screen and there's a person with many hidden circumstances. The Facebook status updates, the tweets, the Instagram pictures and the YouTube videos you regularly perceive are approximately 1% of that and it's important to remember not to base your judgement on what you solely see for all of a few minutes. 

The logic that every single scenario has to be typed up in writing in honour for it to be truthful is absurd. From the smallest of statements to the important manifestos. You do not have to authenticate anything and the fact you haven't uploaded your state of mind or an action you've taken doesn't prove credibility. These days, a good deed can't be done without sharing it with the world. I understand a lot of people embrace the heroic attention and focus so hard on keeping the popular, well loved ranking but for some others it doesn't work like that. Ignoring what's going on and replacing with content that's classed as highly rated and eager to be visualised is oh so very common on social media. I could tell you I'm often cooped up in bed crying over anything and everything (usually that's a soppy rom com or the fact I've put on a few extra pounds) but instead I'll probably contribute to social media by attempting to be funny or concentrating on what I love. There's no rules on what you should put forward and there's no right and wrongs either. If you're feeling heartbroken but wish to put a herd of laughing emojis followed by something irrelevant to your current predicament then (unfortunately) that doesn't take away the original feeling. There's a fine contrast between the two that can be patently used as a barrier. 

Conclusively, It does come down to personal choice; if you want to shout out every detail then willingly go ahead and do so but to use this as a solid base on your beliefs and notions has to be re-thought in order to get the correct understanding.

Have you ever been the target of this sort of thing? What are your thoughts?

Bridie x