A few years ago, I was cruising Facebook while on the toilet. Suddenly I found myself wondering what was wrong with my life. Why was I feeling this way? Why was I questioning my life and choices? This may sound familiar to you. I was questioning my life because I was comparing it to the supposedly perfect lives I saw on social media. So many beautiful pictures of new cars, great jobs, amazing vacations and talented, successful people. What struck me most was that these people were my age, and they seemed to have accomplished so much more in life than I have. I assumed that I must be doing something wrong. This is not a new problem. Thousands of people every single day feel this same way. I am not the only one with social media blues. A quick google search on this topic will pull up countless results of articles written on this subject.
I would like to mention, without delving too far, that professional social media creators are masters of their craft. They can dress just about any picture or article up to come across as far more attractive than it is. Also, they spend all of their time creating new content. As far as friends and family go, they are naturally only going to put their best foot forward on their social media accounts. This may seem obvious but is too easily forgotten when we are feeling emotionally low. What I do want to talk about is what I call “filtering”. No one will be surprised by the statement that we, as a society, spend too much time with technology. What is the first thing most of us do when we wake up in the morning? Grab our phones. From there a good portion of our day is spent consuming information from the radio, television, computers, blogs, Facebook, and YouTube. All day we take in information and rarely spend a moment actually thinking about what our brains are receiving because we are constantly bombarded. The first step I took that helped me break away from depression was taking the hour before sleeping, that I would usually use on video games or YouTube, and set all my technology aside. During this time I would do something else, like writing or meditating. Instead of taking in more information I would put out or do neither and just think about my day. I call this filtering. It gave me a moment to stay my mind and process my day instead of stimulating myself right before sleeping. Not only did this give me better rest at night, it helped me be more productive since I could pursue other things.
Which brings me to my next point. It isn’t always what other people are doing that makes us feel inadequate or useless. Often times these feelings were already there and are only exacerbated when we see others making progress when we feel stuck. Perhaps this is a feeling that needs to be addressed in another way? During my time of social media blues, I was facing a dilemma. I did not know what on earth I was going to do with my life. I was facing the end of my military service and thought I needed a career in the civilian world but I had no idea where to turn or even what interests I had. This was frustrating since it seemed like everyone had a calling except me. I will dip into a topic that I want to cover more in a later article, but taking time away from technology to write helped me realize that people shouldn't have only one calling in life, we may have many. All I needed to do was pick an interest and pursue it to the end to give me the confidence I needed to pursue another, and then another. I got certified as a personal trainer since fitness is a passion of mine. After working full time as one I quickly realized it is not what I want to do with the rest of my life, and that is okay because it gave me the boost I needed to pursue another passion, writing.
All I am saying is, feeling overwhelmed in this world is normal. Society is so loud nowadays it is easy to feel drowned in it. Sometimes what you need is to turn down the volume for an hour a day, focus on yourself and your interests. Pick any goal and just see it through, then if that's not what you want to do, choose another and do it all over again. Before you know it you will be well on your way, doing what you love and having something of your own to show off online to your friends.
I would like to mention, without delving too far, that professional social media creators are masters of their craft. They can dress just about any picture or article up to come across as far more attractive than it is. Also, they spend all of their time creating new content. As far as friends and family go, they are naturally only going to put their best foot forward on their social media accounts. This may seem obvious but is too easily forgotten when we are feeling emotionally low. What I do want to talk about is what I call “filtering”. No one will be surprised by the statement that we, as a society, spend too much time with technology. What is the first thing most of us do when we wake up in the morning? Grab our phones. From there a good portion of our day is spent consuming information from the radio, television, computers, blogs, Facebook, and YouTube. All day we take in information and rarely spend a moment actually thinking about what our brains are receiving because we are constantly bombarded. The first step I took that helped me break away from depression was taking the hour before sleeping, that I would usually use on video games or YouTube, and set all my technology aside. During this time I would do something else, like writing or meditating. Instead of taking in more information I would put out or do neither and just think about my day. I call this filtering. It gave me a moment to stay my mind and process my day instead of stimulating myself right before sleeping. Not only did this give me better rest at night, it helped me be more productive since I could pursue other things.
Which brings me to my next point. It isn’t always what other people are doing that makes us feel inadequate or useless. Often times these feelings were already there and are only exacerbated when we see others making progress when we feel stuck. Perhaps this is a feeling that needs to be addressed in another way? During my time of social media blues, I was facing a dilemma. I did not know what on earth I was going to do with my life. I was facing the end of my military service and thought I needed a career in the civilian world but I had no idea where to turn or even what interests I had. This was frustrating since it seemed like everyone had a calling except me. I will dip into a topic that I want to cover more in a later article, but taking time away from technology to write helped me realize that people shouldn't have only one calling in life, we may have many. All I needed to do was pick an interest and pursue it to the end to give me the confidence I needed to pursue another, and then another. I got certified as a personal trainer since fitness is a passion of mine. After working full time as one I quickly realized it is not what I want to do with the rest of my life, and that is okay because it gave me the boost I needed to pursue another passion, writing.
All I am saying is, feeling overwhelmed in this world is normal. Society is so loud nowadays it is easy to feel drowned in it. Sometimes what you need is to turn down the volume for an hour a day, focus on yourself and your interests. Pick any goal and just see it through, then if that's not what you want to do, choose another and do it all over again. Before you know it you will be well on your way, doing what you love and having something of your own to show off online to your friends.