Like most people these days, I have a Facebook account. As much as it can be a black hole for free time, it is useful to me in so many ways. See, where I live now is 5124.7 miles (8247.4 km) from where I grew up. Yeah, those are the exact numbers. They are big numbers but they just don't seem to convey how vast that distance feels. I do video calls with a few people, but it is hard to find time to talk to everyone I want to keep up with. Some would say this is very American of me, but I can't help but appreciate the efficiency of being able to share my kid pictures and see what my friends and family are up to within minutes. That is the most important but not the only reason I keep my profile up and spend some time interacting most days of the week.
Lately, I have seen quite a few blog posts and statuses discussing what seems to have become a culture of carefully built online personalities containing varying amounts of truth. I have no way of knowing how frequently social media users post information that is purposefully misleading, but I imagine most people are selective about what part of the truth they share. I am going to take that even farther and say that everyone does it. And this habit is much older than Facebook and Twitter. Even with in person interaction, people are always holding something back, choosing what to share. Social media just works in a way that amplifies this, thanks to greater control and lack of context.
I am well aware that judging solely based on my Facebook profile, a person would only know a part of the truth about me. And because of the information that is not there, they might make some wrong conclusions. I will take a few of them and correct them in an attempt to make my social media personality a little closer to real.
- I am almost always happy. This should be obviously untrue. This illusion is created by my tendency to only be "social" when I am in a good mood, because I don't like to be a Debby Downer and because I share my misery with a different friends list, which is about 290 people shorter than the Facebook one.
- I am a perfect mother. (insert sarcastic chuckle) Of course not. I don't even know if this beast exists, but it is certainly not me. I post fun things I do with my family because those are the pictures my family and friends want to see. I post about how much my kids love reading and science because I am proud of their nerdiness which I so carefully foster. Every once in a while I post a parenting fail, but most of the time I don't feel confident enough to point out the ways in which I suck. If I were, I would tell you that my skill of patience which I so arduously work on actually fails me quite often, and that my kids consume more sugar than they should and that every once in a while I turn on cartoons so I can take a nap.
- I am wise and articulated. This may be true sometimes but it doesn't come as easily as my posts may lead one to believe. I do and say plenty of stupid things. Not that these things negate the smart things I do and say, but I am not going to show them off to everyone I know.
- I have no problems. Another obviously untrue one. I do have problems, and I so share them with select people, I just don't think my status is the right place to do that. If I am honest, it is mostly to avoid unsolicited advice, and to protect this thing called privacy.
These are some of the untruths, now replaced with revelations of only a few of the ways in which I am deeply flawed. I am not usually brave enough to be this frank but if anything is to be of my ambition to become a writer, this is barely a start.
I would like to read some opinions in the comment section.
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