Why I am giving up social media...

Lately, I've been pretty gloomy. At first, I thought it was only because I'm three hours away from my family, experiencing stress from college, and lacking sleep. While this probably has a little to do with my mood, this month, I've been evaluating myself. I found the times that I feel most down is when I am on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I began realizing why I feel down when I am on social media.

Facebook was intended to share ideas, thoughts, and amazing things that have been going on in someone's life. Everything that person shared went to people he or she selected to be his or her Facebook friend. People then morphed Facebook to a place that they use as their way of sharing almost every thought or question that is running through their head. I completely understand that each person can use his or her Facebook in his or own way. I am okay with that. But lately, all I see are posts like:

• "I am sick."
• "I am busy."
• "I am sick and busy."

I truly empathize with these people. But when I see someone sharing amazing things going on in their lives, I can't help but feel like they are faking it. I feel like there has to be something wrong with their life. This provokes sadness, anger, hypocrisy, jealousy, and judgement inside of me. 

Instagram was intended to share pictures. Pictures that inspire. Pictures that capture amazing moments in someone's life. I loved Instagram when I first downloaded it. But then words and phrases like "selfie" and "woman crush Wednesday" came along. I'll admit. These were fun to see at first, but I can't stand them now. 

Two girls can have the exact same followers. Exact. They can each post a "selfie" doing the exact same pose. They can attach the exact same song lyric or Bible verse to the "selfie". But one girl will get more "likes" on her photo than the other.

One girl, who may be extremely beautiful, but has the ugliest personality, can be ten different boys' "#womancrushWednesday". But another girl, who may be the kindest, most loving person, but may not be as physically attractive may never have "WCW" hashtagged next to her name. 

While I rarely post "selfies", seeing other people's and how many "likes" they received have unintentionally made me question my self worth. 

Twitter is probably the less of the three evils. But it creates the illusion that just because I follow someone, I must be their friend. However I may never actually talk to that person in "real life".

Twitter is also a popularity contest. The more followers you have on Twitter, the cooler you are. 

So because of all this, I have decided to give up social media for the month of December. This doesn't mean I don't want to hear/see about my friends life. So please, please, please, if you want me to know about is going on in your life, e-mail me, text me, call me. If you don't have my email or phone number, let me know and I will give it to you.