Facebook and Bikinis

I enjoy Facebook. It is cool to find friends that I haven’t seen in 30 years and family that live across the country. I like to keep in touch with people that I can’t get together with on a regular basis. It is fun to watch the kids grow up, babies being born, weddings, and other milestones in people's lives.

But like with anything, it is important to keep this in perspective. Facebook gives a snapshot but it doesn't give you the story behind the pictures or the true meaning behind the posts. At its best it is very surface level…it’s like a bikini. Bikinis reveal a lot but it’s what they hide or cover up that’s important.

In a recent report, it said that people are getting more and more depressed by going onto Facebook. We are constantly comparing our lives to what we see online and we feel we are falling short. Discontent settles in, fear of missing out, wanting what other people have, and thinking everybody else has much more interesting lives than us.

It stinks when you haven’t gone a vacation in years and there are pictures of all these cool places posted. It’s hard to see your friend on the beach in Mexico when you are sitting at your desk in the office. It’s easy to envy the woman who runs marathons, cooks incredible meals, and homeschools her kids all before noon! Click on the celebrities’ pages and you have the all the seemingly glamorous and unobtainable stuff we desire.

But in reality, we have no idea what is really going on. We don’t have a clue if that mom is trying to keep it all together by being busy because her marriage is falling apart. We don’t know if that trip to Mexico put your friend one more step towards bankruptcy. How many celebrities do you know who are really happy even with all that money?

So while I enjoy my Facebook I constantly stand guard to make sure I don’t fall into the comparison trap. “In all this comparing and grading and competing, they quite miss the point.” (2 Corinthians 10:12b Msg) What’s the point? Being thankful and content. Giving God the glory for everything in your life.

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Philippians 4:11-13