Social media in today’s time has become a phenomenon. If you were to tell someone that you don’t have any social media accounts, it would almost be like saying you aren’t human. The first social media platform that I became familiar with after Black Planet and My Space is the infamous Facebook. I joined Facebook October of 2008, and as you can imagine it was very different from what it is today. Facebook was a platform used to keep in touch with friends and family and reconnect with people you hadn’t seen in a while. Overtime as Facebook evolved some of the things that were supposed to be positive became very negative. The live video feature was a great asset but over time has become abused by insensitive users. I remember a time when a family member would find out about the death of a loved one personally, process it and then share with close family and friends. Today, family members can log on to Facebook and in a matter of clicking on a video, witness their loved one laying deceased for the world to see and no time to process that their loved one is gone or the right to inform other family and friends about the tragedy. I can’t imagine the pain one experiences when finding out via social media from a complete stranger that a loved one has passed away in the most tragic way. Social media has truly birthed insensitive, heartless people.
One of the features on Facebook that I have come to really enjoy is entitled, “Memories”. This particular feature allows you to see the status and things that you posted on that particular day going all the way back to the year you joined Facebook. This is the one feature I look forward to each day because it shows how much I have grown and matured over the past 13 years that I have been on Facebook. One of the things I realized is how immature I was and not only immature, but I shared very personal and unnecessary information with the world wide web. It was obvious with some of my posts I was fishing for likes.
There are a few times I have taken breaks from Facebook, just to allow myself time not to get lost in the social media world. Here are a few things I consider before posting anything and I guarantee if you follow these simple steps before posting, you will see a drastic change in your memories that are more honorable than embarrassing.
- Why am I posting this?
What is the motive behind this post, I am posting to share important, HELPFUL, information with my followers? Am I posting this because I truly like it and think it is inspirational and can encourage a follower? Or am I using Facebook as a platform to tell someone something that I could easily say to that person but I am too coward to say it to their face. Is this my way to get others to like what I am saying and the person who has done me wrong can see that everyone agrees that their actions are wrong?
2. Am I posting this for attention or praise.?
Am I truly sharing good news and I am super excited and want to share what has happened to me in hopes that someone else can possibly receive the same thing I did? Or am I bragging and showing off? Did I give someone money and I want people to know that I helped someone else that was less fortunate than me. Not realizing that in reality I am embarrassing that person that I have helped because they may have struggled in silence. Is what I’m posting an attempt to manipulate people into giving me something that I can easily obtain myself. Is this post my way of begging?
Now don’t get me wrong there is nothing wrong with promoting your business, I believe social media is a great platform for business because it truly gets the word about your business spread faster than just word of mouth alone. But if you are posting constantly about your misfortunes with no testimony of how it all worked out in the end, then what is the real motive behind that? Are you looking for sympathy, or help? Wouldn’t it be easier to just ask for the help outright instead of trying to manipulate people to give to you? Also is this really necessary information that the world needs to know about you.
I read a status I posted about 10 years ago about my cable being turned off, in the post I claimed, “God has been dealing with me as it relates to cable and spending more time with him, so next week my cable will be turned off for a short period of time.” I read that status in one of my memories, and thought to myself, “Tanisha shut-up! The truth is, you couldn’t afford the cable so you had to turn it off until you could afford it… furthermore that is unnecessary information. Did Facebook really need to know what is going on in your home? Do you see what I mean? Oftentimes we share things that people just don’t need to know about us. We take pictures just to post on social media. We don’t have pictures to place in photo albums. That was the one thing I loved about my aunt’s house, she had picture albums full of memories… now if we want memories of fun times we have to log on to social media and scroll. But what happens if social media crashes and is no longer available, we lose all those precious moments and memories.
Point blank, we can all benefit from taking a step back and really evaluating the motives behind our posts. If we do this as said before I believe we will be able to look back at our memories and smile rather than cringe. Also, don’t forget that social media is not your life, live each moment and take pictures for your own memories, not just for the likes on Facebook or Instagram. When and if social media should fade away then you’ll still live on because you have not made social media your life focus.
What do your memories say about you? Have you grown or is their growth that needs to take place? We are human and we’ll always be evolving, you’ll never be completely satisfied with what you see but at least your memories will be a great place to see where you can start.
Bread of Life 