In an era where your online persona sometimes counts more than your real-life one does, is it not surprising that many people are feeling the urge to disconnect?
Case in point. Someone told me the other day that I sounded whiny and needy. They’ve never met me. But it stung like a bee in my hand.
I had always thought I was quite the opposite. I sat up, desperately reading everything I’ve posted online for the last month, trying to figure out where they got this from. Apparently, if you tell people you’re tired, you’re whining. Sorry. I’ll stop that immediately. Clearly this person who doesn’t actually know me, felt like picking on someone else instead of themselves that day.
It’s a scary thing, the online world. Whatever you say is almost immediately solid. You can’t unsay what you said, and, as a friend of mine says:
you can hit delete but you cannot clear other people’s cache.
Which is true. Truer than it should be.
Another case in point. Some people tweet things they normally wouldn’t do if they weren’t out at 3am, partying up a storm with their friends. Some people do. I’ve been guilty of it in the past. I know that, for me now though, you’re probably never going to hear from me at 2am with some garbled tweet or status update. I’m never awake at that time anymore. Unless the power’s out. Which I hate, by the way. No whining, just fact. There was a time in my life, rather a very long time ago, when I would’ve been awake, running amok with my mates at 2am. That time, I can promise you, is well behind me, and I’m thankful for that. My nearly 31-year-old self could not ever keep up with my 21-year-old self. I am totally okay with that.
I guess what I’m getting at here is: think before you say something online. This is a common lesson, but I’m more and more aware of it nowadays. Even more so, I hate to put negative thought into words. Let’s face up to that a little – it’s often easier to put those negative thoughts into words, than it is to find a positive angle.
I’m making an effort to do that. I really am. In every aspect of my life. Otherwise, I just fall into the sea of negative thought and I’m the type of person who battles to swim out of it. I can go pretty far into it before I even realise I’ve lost sight of the shore.
What’s my point? My point is this. It’s not that I’m whiny, it’s that I’m honest. It’s not that I’m this beaming bubble of joy, it’s that I’m just trying not to let myself float out to that little dark island of negative thought. Because, frankly folks, I’ve had enough of that.
And that, that is my random thought for today.
(oh, p.s. I’m not picking on anyone in particular. everyone’s free to say what they feel, this is just me choosing to say what i feel)