A Good Front

Recently a friend, who was a bit distraught over seeing a picture of an old boyfriend on Facebook, exclaimed she felt like such a loser seeing this guy with his new girlfriend in his seemingly perfect new relationship. My response to her was that anyone can make their life look picture-perfect on Facebook, but it's just not reality. Nobody posts pictures of themselves as they get out of bed or that represent their hard or lonely times. A person could have a gorgeous picture up of them and their significant other, yet the relationship could be in shambles.

It's really the same with blogging. I do it. I post about fun trips and good times. If I post a picture of myself, you better believe it's going to be one that I think I look good in. I don't post about my lowest and darkest times. I don't post a picture of when I'm feeling fat and ugly.

These days, with blogging and tweeting and Facebook, it's so easy to start comparing our lives to the lives of our friends (or random bloggers). It reminded me of something from Bittersweet...

"when you compare yourself to another person, you always lose, and at the same time the other person always loses too." (pg 112)

This really is so true...when we start comparing ourselves, especially if it's based off of what we see online where people only post what they want others to see/know, no one wins. So just in case some of you might be struggling with thinking I have a picture-perfect life (which is probably not the case anyway, BUT)...


Happy Monday!

13 comments:

Daveana said...

hahahahahahahaha

Good post Em... I saw the picture first, and thought...this is going to be good. How true though...

Linda said...

Happy Monday to you too! (or as Dad said would be more appropriate, "Happy Halloween":) Thanks for the reminder that comparing among ourselves is unwise (2 Cor. 10:12)...but so easy to do! Love you..

sarah.flyingkites said...

oh. my. word.

That is awesome! Way to break the barriers Emily!

I love it...

Betsy said...

I needed to read that, Em, thanks. And the picture, I needed to see that!

L, Ann and boys said...

great post. I actually got so annoyed with this concept that I got rid of our Facebook account-probably not the most proactive approach. ;) I couldn't stay connected to it without getting sucked in...so I would post this random nice thing and that decent picture every once in a great while...it seemed so fake one day when I looked over my profile and I decided it just wasn't worth it. Long story short, I totally agree with you.

love the picture too, pinch is the best filter in photobooth if you ask the boy's humble opinion. =)

An

Sara Huber said...

Why is it that no matter how many times I have looked at crazy photobooth pics, I still laugh everytime I see them! I just can't help it. I think it's the same thing that kept us going back to the bathroom mirror over and over again pushing our noses up and laughing uncontrollably. Remember that, sisters? :)

Christen Leigh said...

Hahaha! How stunning! :) All-around good post. Hope your Monday is going swell.

Sandra said...

Good post Em!

Great picture too:)

emilykate said...

Mom, I love dad's comment! He's so funny lately...

And yes Sara, I totally remember our pig noses in front of the mirror.

An, glad to hear you're with me. :)

Jodi said...

I am laughing... a lot....you struck my funny bone.

Molly said...

"We can't help it!" "We were born like this!"

Ringing familiar, anyone????

Kendra said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kendra said...

great post Em. Thanks for posting the picture too. definitely a good reminder to not compare ourselves among ourselves.