It’s true. We live in a world full of fake people. We watch them, we compare ourselves to them, we judge ourselves by their standard. But they’re all fake. I’m talking about our social media friends. Our social networks of fans, followers and peeps.
We can sit on Facebook all day long and watch what’s happening in our friends fake lives. Watch as they share pictures, as they post inspiring comments, as they repin happy memories. As they share the highlight real of their life, their marriage, their kid’s achievements.
It can make you really depressed. Why? Because we get the feeling like we’re being left in the dust. That our lives are messy while theirs are picture perfect.
But, generally, we only see the good. The “social media” approved updates. We don’t hear when their kids fail an exam. We don’t hear when their spouse gets caught watching porn. We don’t hear when they haven’t done devotions for a year, or a decade. We don’t hear when they’re having a fight. We just get the nice, whitewashed version of their life.
It’s not that they’re lying to us, it’s that we lie to ourselves. We know that “you don’t air your dirty laundry in public”, but then we ignore that other people are living by the same guidelines. So, we look at these perfect families and marriages and think “I wish I had their life” while at the same time, they’re looking at yours, probably thinking the same.
Now the answer is not to run to Facebook the next time your spouse rejects you for sex and post “Turned down for sex again, I feel emasculated.”, or to instagram a picture of your wife caught watch porn, but I do think sometimes it’s appropriate to let people know that life is not perfect. Because it’s not, and it shouldn’t be, this side of Christ’s second coming. We know were living in enemy territory, in the middle of a spiritual warzone. But, most of us want to believe that it’s okay. Most of want to just accept being a prisoner of war, so we can enjoy our imprisonment in comfort. Because challenging the enemy, resisting enslavement, it’s gets you beat up, at best. But accepting imprisonment means we can almost forget we’re enslaved. We can go about our normal lives, pretending everything is OK. And so, we spread the propaganda that life here is pretty good, almost perfect. Even while posting memes about Christianity, we share that we don’t really need Christ, because we have this figured out.
So, let’s share some of our struggles. It doesn’t need to be detailed. We don’t need to shame our kids, spouses or family members. But we should be real, and authentic. I’ve done my best to share some of our struggles on the blog. If I didn’t, I think many people would think “oh, they have a perfect marriage”. We don’t. We struggle. We argue. We’re much better than we used to be, but we haven’t achieved perfection, or even close.
Also we should recognize that no one has a perfect life, a perfect marriage, a perfect family. When we see them in Facebook, we need to realize that it’s a “fake” person. A social media mask. Not an authentic representation. Certainly not one we should be comparing ourselves to. Don’t accept the propaganda. Let’s start being socially authentic.