I read an article recently which discusses an emerging trend on Facebook. Despite the vast amount of emo-tastic status-updaters (we all know at least one), most people seem to use their Facebook only to share the good, the awesome and the beautifultastic in their life. If you're on the receiving end of a News Feed full of AWESOME and <3 loves <3 and puuuurdy when your life isn't exactly perfect, it can be quite depressing.
You become envious of what you perceive to be the perfect lives of your friends and colleagues. And they in turn are envious of the seemingly perfect lives of their own Facebook contacts.
In short, everyone thinks the grass is greener on the other side. But only because no one wants to admit that their lawnmower is also pretty shitty, and the slugs are on the increase this year, and it was never really real grass, but synthetic grass, bought at Makro during a Christmas sale.
This kind of squiff idealism isn't limited to Facebook. People often idealise the house/area/country they're going to live in. When I say "people", I really mean "I".
There must be a better way to live than getting caught in a rollercoaster of "Wow the future is going to be great!" and "Awww shucks the present is pretty average meh.." and "Well at least the future is going to be great!" and "Awww shucks --
You get my point.
Add to this a third temporal dimension - the past (who's been watching Big Bang Theory? ME! Who knows big words? MEEEEEE!) and then you're really getting emotional.
Your mind forgets about the intricate details, some good, some bad, that make up everyday life, and it proceeds to classify everything according to the following three labels:
The past - blah blah nostalgia blah those were the DAYS my friend, we'd wish they'd never end, la la LA la la la LA la la la LAAAAAH. Cue dancing and skipping.
The present: Mehhhh....go back....or go forward.....anything but THISSSSS
The future: Cue Imagine: imagine allll the people...living life in peeeace yeahhh yeaah
And so the average Facebooker starts to believe that
(a) their present life is almost always mediocre
(b) their life is the only life that isn't mindblowingly incredibly perfect
Add to this the fact that we keep friending people we barely know, who would never be so stupid as to tell us when they're having a bad day. Add to this the fact that we friend celebrities and wannabe-celebrities, whose sole purpose is to appear happy and perfect year-round.
And so the average Facebooker sits there in their pajamas scrolling down their News Feed, comparing and chastising themselves for not being better at pretending they are perfect.
This is the part of the blog that is supposed to contain a solution. Well, I don't really have one. Except CATCH A WAKE UP and realise that everyone on your News Feed takes a dump, and definitely has bad days too. And also realise that half the things that are claimed to be EPIC or AWESOME on Facebook, were really just ordinary and nice. And that's absolutely fine. Take pleasure in an ordinary coffee with a friend. Take pleasure in a nice evening with your boyf. Things don't have to be epic to be enjoyable :)
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