The Warped Face-Off of Social Media

Good morning/afternoon/evening/dawn! Today I feel a desire to write about something All Of Us Do way too often – which is viewing Other People and Situations from a shallow, surface-based-only perspective. And Wow! How self-defeating it can be in doing so, and how Wrong We Can Be once we learn what lurks beneath the Superficial Surface!

For months I've been going through many emotional and physical challenges, as regular readers know or have sensed. Along the way, the inability to sleep beyond a few hours each night began to cloud my judgment, skew my perspective, mess-up my body, and, in general, has caused tremendous stress in every area of my life. Sleep is incredibly important – of course – and without it not only do we lose the Healing Properties of cell regeneration, but also, with extended periods of Insomnia, our minds and emotions can fall into Complete Chaos.

Fighting the Waking Hell of Sleep Deprivation can add to the stress one already has rattling through our bodies, which begins a spiral of physical weakness as well as Mental-Emotional Meltdowns over the silliest things. To say that I've not been the easiest person to be around over the months is a Major Understatement.

Throughout the disintegration, my Usually Overly-Sensitive Self became even more sensitive, reactive, and irrational. I sent strange messages, emails, to friends who I felt were ignoring me on Social Media. A few of them were doing so for reasons only they know, while others weren't flipping me off at all. But I didn't know it, and so, with the Emotional IQ of a Touchy Tweener, The Big World out there was becoming A Big Bad World and I was preparing to leave All Social Media Outlets to avoid feeling what I thought was a "slap in the face." One does need a bit of self-respect and enough Self Preservation to know when to retreat – if only for a short while, no?

However, following a brief break from active participation on Facebook in particular, I checked-in one day to discover that most of the FB Friends I had been angsting-about had been hiding serious illnesses and life events for a year. Maybe it's because we're beginning a new year and many of us are changing elements of our lives through Resolutions or the simple shift in energy that occurs when the Big Holiday Rush is over, but people who are usually quiet about their Personal Lives on social media were suddenly telling everyone what they had been through.

One friend has been battling a failed breast reconstruction after a Double Mastectomy and has turned to European Doctors to put her body back together. Another has a frightening not-yet-properly-diagnosed health issue which has caused Extreme Vertigo and a series of falls. Another friend had a devastatingly painful divorce, while yet another had lost a parent and were living in the horrendous Valley Of Grief. It goes on.

The connection with some of my Real Life FB Friends from different periods in my life is Only On FB at this time, thus, viewing their seemingly simple posts that reflected a Lovely Life was seen through the filter of a static visual of a beautiful pond they liked and wanted to share; a picture of a night out with friends at a great restaurant; a Happy Social Gathering – and so on. Everything seemed Just Great in their lives; the All Is Well impression of their Seeming Happiness was formed from what they cared to share. I had no trouble at all feeling glad for their happiness. I did have a problem with their lack of feedback when I would comment, or, after months of supporting their Causes with nary a "Like" from them on any of my posts, perceived their silence as a slight.

Obviously, I had been woefully wrong about what their lives have truly been like over the months. Suddenly, although Sleep Deprivation and a plethora of Other Challenges I've been facing are damaging and can cause serious illnesses, my Personal Issues were immediately shifted from Me-Me-Me to OMG, what hell these people have been experiencing and are continuing to face! My Ego Concerns were immediately sent to the Exit Door, and now I blush with chagrin at how foolish I have been in assessing another person's life, making judgments, creating scenarios that don't exist, based solely on Status Reports and limited observations of what they also "Like."

One would think that someone who has "been around" as long as I have wouldn't allow petty thoughts and perceived snobbery-by-others to derail a Solid Sense Of Self and would simply shrug and Move On without feeling angry or hurt. Not so. We all have our areas of sensitivity. Non-Communication is one of mine. With the recent revelations I have read, however, I think I'm finally growing-up now.

The obvious lesson of this post? It's very simple: We need to remember how important it is Not To Take Things At 'Face Value' – a truism of Life 101.

That's it for today. Have a Wonderful Whatever!

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