Love and Social Media – Envy

This is one of social media’s greatest temptations. We tend to see people’s best sides: their profile pictures with their gut sucked in, the filters on, the makeup on, the blemishes photoshopped, and the cleanest room of the house. Moms get discouraged when they see other mom’s with magazine worthy houses, the smiliest children, and the perfect crafts, and Mr Incredible. Dads get discouraged when they see huge houses with perfect lawns, the all-happy family photoshoots, the perfect couples dates, perfect body builders, over-fantasized (invented?) sex lives, unfaithful players who always get what they want. Barren couples get discouraged when they see photos of their friends with their second, third, fourth, and fifth healthy child. Lonely people get discouraged when they see other couples who deride singleness and paint the picturesque scene of relationship bliss. Young people see success, old people see health, everyone sees the attractiveness of someone else’s spouse. Most often, the social media depiction is missing the ugly side. The irony is that the person you may be jealous of is drooling over someone else’s blessings too. If we are not careful, all social media becomes is a platform to compare and get jealous. Not being jealous means rejoicing with those who obtain what we are longing to have. Not being jealous means not stalking our friends’ posts and photos to drool over their perfect life/children/spouse/job. 

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