Lately, I have been fascinated by the idea of a simple life. because far too often, life just feels so complicated and absolutely absurd when it doesn't have to be. Slowly, I've been trying to cleanse my life of things obstructing simplicity. One of the first things I did was a little less than a year ago; deleting my Facebook was such a fulfilling decision. The account literally doesn't exist anymore. I also used to blog on tumblr a lot, but rarely indulge anymore. And most recently, I eliminated all of my twitter habits, and that account cannot be reactivated either. My reasoning for all of that was sort of in response to my motivation for having all of those social media outlets in the first place. After examining myself it was pretty obvious that I got a lot of my self-worth through internet approval. It's embarrassing to even admit for me now because I find it so ridiculous, but I know that in essence I was worried about what I looked like to an entire world of people that didn't know me, more than I was worried about how I looked to Jesus.
The thing is, we are obsessed with the idea that what we look like, what we think, or what we want…we are obsessed with the idea that those things actually matter. We get the idea in our heads that people should want to know our opinions on matters of this world. We want everyone to know what music we've been listening to. We want everyone to know what we think of president Obama. Because what we think is so important that everyone needs to know about it. We are desperate for a decent connection with people who are as smart as us, people who like to do the same things that we do, or even desperate to give ourselves a sense of superiority to others through comparison on the internet. So why do we turn to social media as an outlet to interact with people? Why do we want their approval so desperately? And why on earth do we believe we are so important?
Well, we replace human interaction with social media because we are afraid to be vulnerable. Vulnerability is perceived as a weakness. To be open and exposed is to leave yourself available to harm and manipulation. So what better way to hide your authentic self than to engage in a digital life? People have a hard time making the realest and most wholesome friends because they are not willing to reveal who they really are and who they have been. In order to have a soulful connection with another person each person must bare his scars and exchange the most impacting occurrences of his life. Brené Brown wrote in her book Daring Greatly, “Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path” (140).
Only in this susceptibility can we inch toward the center of raw humanness. To be human is to fail, and if we put on a show like failure is not and has never been an option, we will find a plethora of fake friends and others who desire to live a sham of a life. Many of these “friendships” and connections are formed through digital technology. And because we tie ourselves down to the tweets we compose, how many likes we get, and how often we get Snapchats from people we do not actually know, we are losing the meaning in our lives and living in a hollow shell. It is therefore increasingly hard to break down people’s walls and find the true man inside.
God created us for a life full of so much more than tweets, statuses, and new photo albums. And we are fleeing from it. This is starting from such a young age in our present culture. And while digital technology is not the only outlet that these philosophical problems are filtering through, it is a prominent one. Children are receiving cell phones as early as third grade. A 7 year old girl that I used to babysit just began following me on Instagram, a photo sharing site that I never predicted would be used by children, swimming in hundreds of followers and posting self portraits asking if they are cute or stupid. The faux-world is infiltrating every age group of our culture and training us to become feeling-less machines that look for comfort in a device, rather than Jesus Christ or His actual “followers” on this earth.
This is discouraging for me, especially because I can see the effects in the people I am attending college with and on myself. There are only a few cures to this problem. As a vulnerable and authentic person in our culture, it is so healthy to practice kindness to quite literally, everyone. This can be hard, but realizing that every single human is lacking some form of love and searching for it in some way opens up countless doors in the search for the human soul in our friends and acquaintances. I feel that we must make a conscious effort to hold meaningful and genuine face-to-face conversations with those who cross our paths, and truly invest in the exposing of a person’s heart.
In application of my "SIMPLIFY MY LIFE" endeavors, I've stopped scrolling through Facebook before class starts. I've been more intentional in my relationships with my own family and the people around me. And if I have spare time, I read a book, not a dramatic comment thread hahah.
And perhaps, this entire post is self-contradictory in the fact that I believe what I'm saying actually matters……lol at myself. but I don't have it all figured out…..I'm actually wrestling with a rather weird issue myself, not to be discussed in this post. But to hint, I think I may be becoming a…
hopeless romantic??????
omg help!
and also omg help I just said omg! in a blog post! okay, thats enough. until next time...
