I woke up this morning with Instagram notifications that I didn’t even know how to access. I had to text my friend who texted me about the Instagram images she’d sent. Once she reminded me how to access the messages, I did what we do…went right to it. She was sending me a picture of her stunningly handsome brother who is a Capoiera Maestre. I was amazed that she didn’t know of my deep fascination with all things, Capoiera. She was eager to send me the pictures of him and of course, I swooned.

Then, I spent a few minutes perusing her almost daily Instagram posts. I was as amazed, as I was dismayed. All of her posts are beautiful pictures of her and her world. Because everything in her world is as beautiful as she. She knows it, and we all do, too.

Without judgement of her or myself, I love to look at them. I just wonder what the world has come to? Why is it so important that we flaunt ourselves? Is it no longer any good to have others notice us, organically? Like, catch a glimpse in a store or café? Whatever happened to that? Must we publicly remind daily, hourly, by the minute that we are here? It troubles me. It seems all of our glossy images are causing a glut of copycat images, which means we become indistinguishable, which is the very thing we are trying to avoid.

TMI…Too much information. Too much of images, stories, celebrations, vacations, etc…. invites unwanted curiosity, unnecessary jealousy, unlimited arousal and unadulterated stalking. How did we get so hungry for attention? It seems so strange to me…but I know, perhaps it is true, I am old fashioned in some parts of my soul, despite my inherent penchant for progress.

I have tried hard to avoid social media. But as we all do, I struggle with the ease of constant information flow and the ability to see images of beauty, 24 hours a day. On the other hand, I fear losing myself drowning in the wires and cables that connect when it turns out, that I am no longer connecting, at all. All that remains is the constant clicking to appease our “followers.” We must keep up our computer face; glossy, flawless and so often, not true.

Used in a sentence: “Where can you go to recreate yourself, so that you can be instantaneously liked (never loved) or demonized within seconds? That place is called Social Media.