Can I tell you how exhausted I am? Every time. Every single year following the completion of a holiday, I seem to drift amongst life in a fog of partial consciousness. I am surrounded by garbage bags of Christmas paper and chocolate wrappings that the ridgeback has sifted through at the turn of midnight, in her escapades for more food. There are tiny particles of toys and Pokemon cards and clothes that must find new homes. Holiday cards are strewn about. I will stare at them 3-4 times in despair before deciding to toss them.
My past solution of feeling overwhelmed by everything we have to do for the holidays was to find sneaky pieces of time to "check out," go on Instagram, and watch short reels or find memes of (mostly) women going through the same mental strain and depletion that I am. I would nod in agreement at the long lists compiled of everyone we buy for listed to the left, and the one person our spouse/significant other buys for on the right (hint: us. and yes, they still forget the stocking). I would affirm the reels of men actually surprised at all the gifts "given from them." Fist pump in comradery the women hiding out in a kid's room, wrapping gifts at a glacial pace, in order to experience solitude.
But this year, it's just not doing it for me. Seen it all, experiencing it and hearing others going through the same, and nothing feels original about it.
Then I notice, many creatives on substack have left, or are leaving, social media. They cite issues like only 100 people actually seeing their posts when they have 20K followers, the weird direct messages that land in their boxes, and the fake "perfection" of the images. The inauthentic nature of the platform, the influencers. The quick, 5 to 10 second reels that feed our inattentiveness and pull us from actually committing to sitting down and reading a full book of other's thoughts.
I do not disagree with any of these points. I find them to be valid and true. And I've told myself, well, the reason I stay there is mainly for those therapeutic reels (shared with friends and found during the numbing scroll). I don't expect to maintain "friendships" through social media. But now, I'm left with a conundrum of spirit as these reels and memes are falling short.
So, should I even be there? Or is it time to give the 'gram the old pink slip?
I'm not sure, but I know I don't believe in continuing to do something "because it's the way I’ve always done it.” That’s death of the soul, to me. The soul should be forever evolving, learning, growing, changing.
What are your thoughts on social media -- has it turned into a force of evil or is it worth sticking around? Do you get sucked in waaaaaaaay beyond what you initially planned to be there for? Does it contribute to the worldwide suffering that exists due to people not differentiating truth from falsehood?
All things I’ll be contemplating as we sew up 2023 and head into 2024.
Kara and I hope you had a great holiday and thank you for your patience as we took last week off to make all the Christmas miracles happen. But even the off week surprisingly brought some A+ content that I couldn’t help but share. I'll leave you with this random and true story that happened on the holiday.
Christmas night, we were traveling the dirt road path home to find three cars lined up in front of our abode. Immediately sketched out (because ours is the kind of neighborhood where only those who live there tend to be there), we surveyed the people in the cars.
A young woman in a Christmas lights headband. Two young men wearing short-sleeved white collared shirts paired with a tie, looking like they jumped off the stage of “The Book of Mormon,” appeared.
“Oh,” I says to the husband. “They’ve come to spread the good news to us all.” Two more white shirt and tie combos appeared, walking towards us from the woods in front of our home. Adam hollers out “Whatcha up to, fellas?”
I sat in the passenger seat, trying my darndest to appear as the previously-saved Christian wife and doesn’t need the lecture at 8:30 PM after wrapping up a full holiday of cheer with three children.
One white shirt and tie combo takes the lead: “We were preparing for caroling!” …then, the second confesses: “…We actually just got done taking a pee.”
We nodded, extended a “Merry Christmas” salutation, and pulled into our driveway.
Is it even Christmas if missionaries aren't relieving themselves on your front lawn?
I'm catching up on my reading and I nearly spit out my sandwich when I read that Christmas story at the end. I do feel you on the social media thing. I have both a personal and professional IG and FB account. I only have FB because I need it if/when I schedule IG posts. I haven't been on IG--on either accounts--as much. When it comes to the professional acct, I've noticed that other people in my industry (editing) don't post all that much. I may just stick to starting a monthly business newsletter and then posting on IG to drive traffic to that newsletter.
Threads. Just move to Threads. You'll get information rather than a FaceTuned image. Instagram is such a yawn. But I hope you both had a wonderful Christmas and wish you a fabulous 2024. xo