Does anybody else ever get really sick of Facebook sometimes? I have these crazy moments where I just feel like deleting mine. It's so so dumb, but I get sort of sad when people don't 'like' my posts/pictures, especially when they're of Riggs. I often read about how annoying it is to some people to see picture after picture of their friends kids on Facebook. I've even heard it called pathetic when that's all someone posts about. But every time I hear that, I wonder, why are they your friend then? If you don't want to see pictures of their life, why not unfriend them?
It's the word 'friend' that I think is the biggest misconception on Facebook. I have over 500 friends, yet I rarely have more than 10 people 'like' anything I post. So how does that work? Don't get me wrong, I'm not hoarding my likes and comments in some sort of social media popularity contest. It's not about getting the most likes for me. It's about people being excited about things I'm excited about. It's about people showing support and love for my precious child. It's about taking the less-than-one-second it takes to click the like button before continuing to scroll through your feed. It's about taking the less-than-one-minute it takes to type a short comment.
I know I've been guilty of the not-liking-or-commenting thing. Sometimes I scroll through my newsfeed in what I guess you could call a zombie-esq stupor where I might click on a photo and even think "How cute!" or "What is happening here?" or "That is so funny!" but I just go back to the feed and keep scrolling. I did this a lot especially before I had Riggs.
Once it was pictures of him I was sharing with my 'friends', I started to pay more attention to the pictures and posts my friends were posting. I saw their kids in a different light. I felt how proud they were when they shared a story about something special their child did that day. And I started making sure I clicked 'like' before moving onto the next post. I made sure to actually type out a comment instead of just making one mentally. Because I know how it brings a big smile to my face when someone leaves a comment for me. How connected it makes me feel to that person, that we shared a little tiny bit of our day through our online interaction.
I think it's so important, with all the distractions and busyness in our lives today, to make sure that some sort of connection happens. Even if you can't physically get together with your friends, make sure you reach out to them some other way. It doesn't have to be through Facebook. Send them a text if you think about them. Make a point to remember the things your friends might have going on and message them to ask how they're doing. To ask how that big appointment went. To see if their baby is finally sleeping again.
Think of how much it means to you when someone reaches out, and pass that good feeling on. And please don't think that I'm posting this so that you'll rush over to Facebook and 'like' everything I've posted lately. I'm sharing this to encourage other's who might feel the same way that I do at times. To remind them that you have to be a friend to have friends. And to also suggest that we be gentle with each other.
