social media

After having taken a long break from social media, it is really interesting to dip my toe back into the water. It has gotten chilly! I was a bit baffled and was talking about the different tones on the platforms and somebody summed it up as: "Instagram is for good news, Twitter is for bad news."

Instagram seems to be filled with people who are doing awesome things and looking great doing them. It can make me feel like I'm not doing enough or being awesome enough. Of course, these images are carefully curated by the users and may have enhancing filters applied to them, but it is interesting how it unearths feelings of unworthiness in me. It is hard to remain grateful for your life and mindful of how good you have it when you are looking at photos of people on the beach, doing yoga, and looking better than I feel. If you reach out to someone and say how awesome it looks like their life is, they respond with a “well….” It is a sanitized version of ourselves where there is no old age, sickness or death.

Twitter on the other hand, is almost exactly the opposite. Instead of being a place for self-promotion where you can show off how good you look and how successful you are, it is a place to tear down people. The place is filled with hate. It is all about Schadenfreude. You get to either participate in - or watch - people getting taken down.

Facebook: I don't have a facebook account. So I can't really speak to what that is like now. I can only say that it seems like all of your data is for sale to just about anyone. Of course, they own Instagram, so by proxy, I suppose all your data is for sale from Instagram, too.

I have to hand it to the developers of these platforms, though. They are really ‘sticky’. You want to keep scrolling and looking and reading. It almost scratches some psychic itch, while keeping us yearning for more.