A New Store
You know what's wicked awesome? When I don't have to drive 80 miles to pick up a new shower curtain liner. The Pamida store that's been promised to be built for years now finally opened last month. Wonder of wonders, I can now just run to the street instead of braving the mountains to pick up general household products. Excellent.
The Negatives in Social Networking
It's been awhile since I blogged about anything. Seems Minnesota takes the need to blog out of me. But after six weeks in the land of very green grass and outdoor baseball, I'm back in the mountain time zone. I missed the grand opening of Pamida. So excited.
While I was gone, I read a couple of people's blogs that I found extremely interesting because one discussed how everyone seemed so happy while they were going through a tough time and the other one kind of proved my theory that people don't generally want to post about the negative things in their lives on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Here's what was fascinating to me. When someone close to you dies, would you immediately be out there on a semi-public forum posting about it? Obviously, if you're using the network to spread word about the death/illness or whatever that's one thing, but for the most part, I think people generally don't want to put something negative out there. If I look at most people's Facebook page, I see how great life is for them: they got engaged, it's a girl!, the concert is fantastic, how wonderful their Twins seats are, etc. I don't see posts like "Flowers on the coffin match the deceased's classic Chevy. Very nice." or "Buried my grandfather today. The honor guard saluting the coffin while the Battle Hymn of the Republic played was ridiculously powerful." I don't think people want to share their painful moments with a bunch of people who are mostly acquaintances/coworkers and not close friends.
It might be hard if you're going through something awful to see how everyone else's life is seemingly wonderful. But I think a lot of those seemingly happy people might in fact be experiencing feelings similar to yours. The same week I read the post discussing feelings like this, it struck me because if you looked at my Facebook account all you'd know was that I was at Target Field (in some really awesome seats). What you wouldn't know is that I spent two days in Albert Lea attending the visitation and funeral for my uncle. So while it would appear everything was all sunshine and Twins in my life, the reality was quite different.
I don't really know that I have a point here, just that perception is often quite different from reality. I wonder how many emotionally fragile people out there are driven further into depression and despair because they truly believe that everyone's lives are just so wonderful while theirs is so miserable? Twitter/Facebook have been credited with stopping several suicides, but could they actually be contributing to many more?
