10 Commandments On How To Treat Social Media

I read somewhere that we need to treat Social Media like the glossy magazines which we get and flip through for entertainment purposes. And that stuck me as a valid point.

Now, why did this above point strike me as important because the truth is, while most of us realise that social media is a curated expression controlled by the creators own perception of self, yet, we get swayed by it from time to time and get wrapped up in its overwhelming perfection. And there are people, a part of the audience, who probably believes that all they see is real.

I say this because I myself have gone through this where in I have believed the stories in the pictures. I have seen and thought, if they can achieve so much, why can’t I? When they can afford so much, why can’t I? When they can be so perfect, why can’t I be? 

Now, I am not a someone who always feels like this; most of the times I am pretty pleased with myself. But yes, there are times when I have presumed myself to be totally incompetent, stupid & a massive failure. Let’s not blame Social Media alone for this. This feeling of comparing and feeling lesser, of showing off and hiding our insecurities has been a part of our human psyche since long before that. Social Media has just helped to increase its reach and effect multiple times.

What we need to very clearly understand is that it’s not exactly the way it is shown here. What we see are curated bits of our lives, showing off the best parts of it. And hey! Why not? We all love doing that. We even love seeing the well curated highlights, the pretty pictures, the on-point dressing up, the beautiful vacation snaps, the gourmet spreads and what not! I don’t want to share the dull and not so colorful bits from my day with you and neither do you want to see it. For most of us, Social Media is not a place to wash and hang our dirty or boring laundry. It is a showcase of finer things. And that’s fine as long as we are aware that it’s a slightly fake picture.

Ok, may be it’s not a fake picture but not a whole picture. Like when clicking photos at home, you push away the mess from the photo view…same way, we push away the mess and showcase only the best on Social Media. But please be aware of these facts…

No one looks great all the time

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Cindy Crawford once famously said, that even she doesn’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford. So, no one looks well turned out all the time. Everyone has bad hair, bad skin or just bad days. They don’t post those & why should they?

Nothing comes easy

Yes, they got another promotion and won the best ‘something’ award at their workplace. However, this doesn’t mean that they never ever had a horrible boss, or a coworker pulling them down! More often than not, they worked really hard for that success.

No one is always perfect

No…she isn’t always feeding her kids organic, healthy home cooked food. There are days when they eat from a box.

No one is always doing the right thing

No one goes to the gym daily or eats healthy always. Unless they are a trainer and it’s their job.

Rewards come with an effort

Plush houses, luxurious cars, high end buys are inevitably shown off, but there is a lot of grit and sweat that went behind it which isn’t shown but has to be understood.

Relationships take work

Relationships aren’t only the lovey-dovey pics. There are a lot of understandings and adjustments, breakups and patchups behind the curtains.

Some of it is definitely fake! 

Not everyone is BFF with everyone. Some of it is pretend, some fake and forced. Live with it! 

Not everything is as it seems

Not everyone is always having a great time all the time. There may be loneliness, illness, despondency and loss of direction in life, which they are trying to deal with.

Parenting is hard

Kids aren’t always sweet and smart. Sometimes, they are downright impossible and so are the Moms and the Dads. They don’t have their shit together all the time. They do shout and lose it.

People are real, pictures are not! 

And lastly no one is sweet and nice all the time.

So treat social media with a pinch of salt only for entertainment. It’s a good place to be influenced too as long as we do it with a bit of maturity. Hope you liked reading my post. 

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