Claire’s Happiness Project: Disconnecting

Social media is important for bloggers- it’s how we get our stuff out there, gain readers, and hopefully make enough money so none of us have to work a real job. However, in my personal life, I hate Facebook. Twitter, I can handle- I get news, friendly communication from fellow bloggers, and ridiculous things that make me giggle. However, Facebook turns me in to a giant rage monster. Uninformed, half-thought opinions, constant pictures of people’s dinners, and even more constant begging for attention for every little life moment makes me want to pack up and move to the desert, where my only companions are lizards and cacti. I’m not sure when our society started caring way more about other’s approval of their life rather than experiencing it themselves (probably around 2004), but it’s gone too far. Go on vacation or to a concert and notice how many people are living the experience through their iPhone screen. Sure, you can come home, proud that your moments are perfectly captured with the appropriate Instagram filter. But do you remember how it felt to stand on that beach? Or the mountain? Or the pulse of the crowd when your favourite song began? Or did you miss it because you couldn’t choose between Valencia or X Pro II?

Maybe I’m just an old soul, but I would rather remember the feeling of the wind on my face than get 1000 likes on that awesome sunset picture. I would rather meet a friend for coffee than communicate through endless retweets. Don’t get me wrong, I like technology. It has its time and place. But we have reached a tipping point- where real life has given way to a watered down reality. Where people who disagree can be nasty behind a keyboard and real life is sacrificed in favor of internet infamy.

Me, I’ll take the simple things. Waffles and coffee and cartoons on a Saturday morning with my little family is sweet.  And it happens, even if the photos aren’t there to prove it. Some things, at least to me, are sacred.