Facebook: love it or hate it, you will find what you are looking for

'The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlight reel.' Steve Furtick

Facebook. We love it and we hate it. We love learning from each other, connecting with each other. We love seeing photos of friends who we don't get to see because they live far away. 

We hate the way we feel about our life when the lives of others look so peachy all the time. Because most of us use it as Best-Face-Book. Of course we do. Who takes a photo of themselves when they are in a terrible mood or when they feel depressed? 

Those aren't exactly moments when you think 'Ooh, I'd like to capture this moment...'

And it's ok. We're all entitled to post whatever we would like to post. Most people are not intentionally posting only the rosy moments. 

The problem is that so many of us are secretly thinking our lives are not interesting enough, exotic enough, happy enough. That other people have it better, easier, with more travel to far-flung islands and dreamy beach moments with wind and sand in their hair. Instead of feeling happy for them, we just think that we are not enough. 

And we don't see the moment after when sand gets in someone's eye and two out of four family members have a meltdown and everyone sulks all the way back to the hotel room. 

I saw this cartoon in a card shop the other day. Isn't it great? It illustrates what I feel about Facebook: that whatever we are looking for, we will find. If we want evidence that our life is substandard (because we believe it is) and that we are not enough, we will find it. If we want to increase our awareness and make connections with other likeminded people who affirm that we are enough, we will find that too. 

I like the idea that, if dogs took over the FB HQ, this is what it would be called. And we would have a parallel reality. Maybe we could sign up and post all our boring moments, our low points, the stuff we think others would judge us for. 

In fact, I am going to post one in the comment thread below. Feel free to post a ButtBook photo if you feel like joining me.