An Apology
Social media is bad for us! Social networking is good for society! If it didn’t happen on the Internet, then it didn’t happen in real life! We cry out about the good, the bad, and the ugly that is social media, but while platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram become a more integral part of our daily lives, there is no denying that there is a certain impact they create.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with posting a picture of a sunset or rock climb with the intention to share our warm fuzzies with loved ones, especially when we don’t get to see friends and family on the daily. Thank goodness for things like FaceTime and Instagram. Apps such as these have made it possible for me to stay connected with loved ones I don’t get to see nearly as often as I’d like to, as well as make new connections in a meaningful way. Ultimately, it's a way for me to share my experiences with people that I care about. I want my mom to see that beautiful sunset. I want to share my enthusiasm about climbing with anybody else who is enthusiastic about climbing. These are all essentially good things, right?
Social media life is not my real life, and could never be a replacement for it. I feel compelled to apologize for the unintentional implication that social media causes. It might seem like kind of a strange and silly thing to apologize for, but I’d noticed I wasn’t following a friend any longer and vice versa recently. They told me they were really busy with nursing school and seeing my photos hurt their feelings and gave them serious FOMO.
No matter the social media platform you choose to use, there will always be gaps and missing context from your storyline. The fact is that a vast majority of us simply can’t be climbing seven days a week. I’m certainly not. And truthfully, I don’t know that I’d want to or have the energy for it. Social media is making it difficult for us to separate reality from the Internet. This year, in taking a step back from social media, I came to realize while it can help foster connections, if I devote too much of my time and energy towards it, it has an adverse effect and steers focus away from the things I really want to do, people I love and wish to see, and the relationships that I want to nurture. These days, I try not to use social media as a cure for boredom or a place to spray, but rather a place to share my thoughts with those interested in hearing them.
And at the end of the day, that nifty route was still climbed regardless of a filter. Cameras can only capture so much, anyway. They can’t capture belly laughs or that feeling in your gut you receive when you finally reach the point where the summit meets the sky. Incredible things happen, undocumented and unfiltered, everywhere in the world at any given moment. What the evening dusk tells me when I remember to put my camera down as it falls all around me in ethereal beauty is, how we live our life is far more important than how we say we live our life.