Why do people update their status on atrocities like Facebook? Even a better question is why do people feel the need to update their status on Facebook? Have you ever noticed that these status changes are more negatively charged than positively?
The trend for the last two years just to name a few are phrases like HMU (Hit me up) and FML (F*** my life). Both are used most frequently by teens. But they are both signs of a culture that is fixed on pain. Hit Me Up: a term to have people call them or get in touch with them or to somehow communicate with the one who is posting that message. Why are they doing it? Because they are lonely individuals. It actually is a cry for help: please someone talk to me. Why isn't anyone talking to this person? Because they are all too busy texting others and/or IM everyone else in their stupid address book. The lonely heart cries for someone to communicate with. But what they are not realizing is that even if someone does text them in one way or another that they aren't really communicating. The personalization or intimacy of relationship is lost. No matter what stuff.com.nz says, "In fact, we believe there is sufficient evidence that social media afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community." These are the wrong rationalizations for Facebook. Most of these new expressions only tend to hurt people. Intimacy with a computer...hello...phone sex. Community???? Since when do people work together to get things done in the real world on Facebook? No, HMU means people are hurting.
So what about FML? Do we have to even go there?
The main question is why do people post these things if they are hurting? Why do we feel the need to tell the world how much pain we are suffering? Human interaction has changed but the old adage misery loves company remains true. It used to be we would call our best friend and unload on them but now we see we have a bigger audience and it tends to feed people off their anger. They can now express to the world how angry they are all at once. But since they can hide behind the impersonal avatar they can say anything they want and feel no consequences. This allows stronger feelings to be expressed and terms of hatred are filtered through our minds. But little do they care that they hurt others in this way. Some people aren't happy unless others are hurting. It doesn't make you any better than those who hurt you if hurt people too.
LESSON TO BE LEARNED: No one else needs to actually feel the pain in order to have sympathy for you. No one needs to actually feel the pain to understand that people need healing.
No it's just not Facebook, it's our culture. We are spoiled. We think we deserve it all and that the world owes us. We feel we are the stars of the world and the population is our audience. Listen, when given a lemon, make lemonade, don't just spit out the seeds at everyone.
The culture is hurting. The culture is crying out for help. The culture needs healing.
People are hurting. People are crying out. People need healing.
Church, where are you? Probably texting...
Only God can heal, people have to learn how to forgive.
What do you think? HMU...
No comments:
Post a Comment