The sharing of information dates back to the stone ages when people were literally writing on the walls! Fast forward a few centuries and friends were communicating via written word with what we still use (if infrequently) today - its a thing called snail mail. Remember that folks? Back in the day mail took ages to be delivered. The Austenian in me would like to say a fortnight! There was no such thing as junk mail. Oh will wonders never cease? Soon after another invention (again that we still use today - more frequently - albeit much improved!) took the world by storm - the horseless carriage aka automobile aka car. Mail delivery times were cut in half and with each improvement that delivery time was cut shorter and shorter until it could be delivered within a day or two.
In the mid ninties the information super highway revolutionized the way we communicate. Instantaneously and in real time. When I was little making an international call to my aunt and cousins in Taiwan was a big to do! Now 2 decades later we can share information, pictures, news; within a split second.
With faster and faster means of communication the worlds attention span seemed shrink! Before you'd watch a 2-20 minutes skit on YouTube now it's the 10 seconds long snap chat. Before you'd read a full blog post now it's a 140 character long tweet.
We are so bombarded with the activities and goings ons of our friends on a daily, if not minute to minute basis that we've grown desensitized to this propensity to overshare!! I admit having just just become a first time mom this past year after trying for 3 years and having had two miscarriages to boot I was very much overjoyed with my little speck and I could probably be a poster child for oversharers anonymous. However we fail to realize all our proud moments which was once limited at most to an annual holiday letter enclosed with a christmas card can now be shared constantly in an almost live feed! And with any action there is an equal and corresponding reaction. Anytime day or night we can peer into a snapshot of the lives of our family and 2,848 of our nearest and dearest friends. Because realistically who doesn't have over 2,000 friends in real life? And the result? Depression is in the rise.
But honestly we need to remember that all we are seeing is a snapshot of reality. You know the old saying a little knowledge is dangerous? Well the same applies to the snapshots we see on Facebook, Twitter and whatever new fangled social mediums are out there these days, because honestly I stopped keeping up after Twitter. I'm not even sure how I caught wind of snap chat...
You might be a newlywed thinking "Gee! That new baby that my old college roomates' best friend from high schools' little sisters' best friend just had is so darn cute why don't I have a baby yet?" Or you might be a recent college grad thinking "Golly my old highschool ap bio lab partner's best friend just landed a job at Pfizer" why am I still unemployed? Or you may be thinking "Shucks! My kid sisters friend's cousin's youngest sister/brother just got engaged. Why can't I even find a boy/girlfriend?" We're happy but deep down inside the evil green eyed monster is rearing its ugly head. We aren't seeing that the hrs of pacing back and forth with a fussy new tyke or (a little closer to home) the years of trying and the disappointment, confusion and heartache of losing that small soul before we could even meet her face to face. We're not seeing the 1000 resumes that our dear buddy sent out and the 200 failed interviews that they went on before landing a job at Pfizer. And we are definitely not seeing that our buddy will be spending the rest of their life with a sinful imperfect human being with whom every major life decision will need to be shared with and discussed until both parties come to an agreement instead of doing whatever you'd like to do without a second thought to another human being beside yourself?
Not that having babies, landing a dream job and getting married are terrible things! Far from it...they are amazing blessings from God! In His wonderful and perfect time! But social media's painting an incomplete picture. We see the end result without seeing the trials and tribulations and the hard work and the sacrifices that are a part of this fallen world we live in. We're just seeing a "happily ever after" without realizing that this life is not a fairy tale. The story goes on...
But don't forget that there is a good author who has written all of our stories already and if we trust in His will, believe in His redemptive work at the cross, we know that all things will work for our good! However hard, difficult, bitter, terrible, wonderful, amazing, beautiful and precious it may all seem right now. And finally we know that our treasures lay not in this life but the next!
