Day 2 of 2018 and thoughts on Instagram

It's been 2 days of 2018 and I'm ready to go back to 2008 in a hurry. When did time decide to move so fast? If Einstein were here I would scout him out and ask him to come up with a new theory for the relativity of time because this last year sped by like one month and some part of the formula of time must be off! He stated that there were four dimensions in time and the fourth one, that we don't feel is space-time. I have a feeling that we must be falling in a black hole of time where it is speeding up because things are just moving too fast!

Interestingly, I had, for a very short month, an account with Instagram and both enjoyed and increasingly despised it so decided to delete it. It felt like a bad relationship. In short: it is all about Ego and how highly people see you.

"Do "they" think I am interesting?" Fatty ponders the philosophy behind his most recent post.

 Its totally inorganic to being human. I hadn't had a social media account in years so I was out of practice with the exercise of the whole concept. When I first went on Instagram, to post pictures of things I made, moments I thought were pretty and to share thoughts on meditative prayer, I was stunned, literally shocked to the moon to see how many people become mini-gods to themselves to be on Instagram. I sensed suffering, I sensed frustration, I sensed people trying to compensate and prove that they are worthy...but to who? Why? Who has done this to society? How can humans exist like this? BBC Health published an article siting Instagram worst for Young Mental Health. Here are my thoughts on Instagram, and I would throw in Facebook too but since I don't have it here is what I felt or took away from it.

1. One must have a theme for himself. The cat lady.

"All this time you had me thinking you were a dog person."

The reader. The Catholic. The Recycler.  The lucky world traveler! The one who humorously accepts faults. The optimist herbalist. Your identity becomes a "The". The concept of being a "the" makes each individual an object and then the themed person is stripped away the beautiful and multiple aspects which we are given. Once you give thought to the dissertation topic you will label yourself with, carefully weighing the options and give yourself a theme, you realize there are others with the same theme, and you feel the need to be in that theme at its best. It is insane! Then it seems as if each themed character must only post on their theme: family, yoga, self help, creative decor, etc etc. It's anti-human. Pure anti-human. Logging off feels like this:

I'm Ok, but I feel like I should keep driving in life but something is wrong with my vision. Did someone spray on my window and I can't see? Wait, it's encouraging, wait, that is still messed up!

2. "Likes". This concept is so nutty. I am glad there are scholarly articles on the concept of "Likes" being linked to primitive desires of self-preservation by acceptance. Essentially, from what I have read, there is a part of our brain that feels rejection and acceptance. Seeing a "like" or that many people "like" or accept your content gives a jolt of positive reinforcement of acceptance. When people don't like your content your brain doesn't know its just a stupid social media account not worth your time, rather it recognizes it as a rejection from society equal to being kicked out of the caveman tribe. And you feel sad. This is why so many people, in my opinion, slowly become addicted to wanting to be accepted and start to feel (at least my generation) that social media is a real place where your worth and identity as a person really matters. "Likes" are venom, in my humble opinion.

"Hide me! No one really liked me! The few that did only liked me for being a cat!" Bentley bemones

3. Limiting. Social media is so limiting in various ways. It limits authentic time spent being alive. Suddenly your life and time is interrupted by checking your account. Five seconds gone. The cat needs food and hates your phone. Then you are mentally interrupted by suddenly being swooned by a picture of a sea at sunset and wow isn't it pretty? Shoot! I need to feed the cat! Then hours later you get a notice that you have been tagged. The tag is of a cookie. Is that who you are? I don't want to be tagged! The desire to be your authentic self creeps in and you decide to post something of who you "really" are to show the universe that you are not a mere cookie eater. So you post something lame and thoughtful and artistic and wait for the people it should touch to "like" it. No one likes it after 3 hours. After 5 you contemplate asking your best friend why she didn't like it. That inner caveman feels rejected by the tribe. The next morning you see that 12 people liked your post, wait, those mostly look like fake accounts!

In all of this time being mentally tortured you realize you could have at worst stared at the wall for 5 hours and it would have been much more mentally productive.

Time better spent staring at the sunshine move across the wall. How slow, how warm....

But what about those amazing pictures from the Hubble? Darling, you can find them online or go in person up to Baltimore. And at the end of the day, no one needs to know nor cares what you ate, where you ate, with whom you ate and how you digested it.

Social media is a waste of time. There is nothing social about it but rather is pretty anti-social as it creates pockets of loneliness within otherwise good people who don't know they are good and capable of cultivating beauty without computers.

I often wonder what people would do or wouldn't do if they didn't have social media. Would they complain less? Would they travel less? Would they diet or exercise less? Would they read more? Would they spend more time with their children? I don't think that people would necessarily be better as we are all in need of mercy but I do think that many sad moments, moments of comparison, and mental strain could be avoided.

Other than contemplating Instagram and wanting to study effects of social media, I have been enjoying most of the last two days. Here are a few pictures:

A fox tip toed across our back yard.

The Holiday Deer made their annual New Year's Day appearance

The water I left outside for Mr. Fox to drink froze within an hour. 

The mandarin oranges looked beautiful in the sun. 

The kittens had their first fight. It lasted about 2 seconds. Fluff went in all directions. They immediately parted ways and napped happily forgetting what had occurred. 

I spent a good deal of time reading about turkeys and laughing on the couch. 

A chubby  Baby Jesus arrived to his seashell manger and I realized that our nativity doesn't have any shepherds! We must get shepherds. They were out in their field and were the first to adore Jesus. The simplicity of shepherds being there makes me happy. 

This sign seemed like an oxymoron. Grand Opening at a place that looks more like a Grand Closing. 

The corner house was splendid in the sunset. 

I wonder how many cats live in the pink house? 

I used my label maker and putting that tiny bit of  order felt quite satisfying.