Do you ever feel like that?
Sometimes it consumes me. And quite frankly, it’s exhausting.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my twitter friends. In fact, if it weren’t for twitter, I may feel like I don’t get to communicate with other moms out there. The relationships I have built with my “twitter friends” are ones that I can not replace.
Plus, there is NO WHERE else that delivers information near as fast as twitter.
You don’t know what diapers to buy? Just ask twitter. Where else can you get a hundred responses from other moms on whether they prefer Huggies or Pampers? Magic!
Or how about your in the grocery store and you can’t find the pimentos? Mass tweet: “Can anyone tell me where to find pimentos in the grocery store?” I got answers WAY quicker than having to track down the Walmart employee that most likely wouldn’t have been able to help me anyway! (By the way, THANK YOU if you responded to me on that….you saved me TONS of wandering time)!
But then there are the times that I feel like I am way too caught up in it. Like, when I haven’t been on in 12 hours and the thought of missing everyone’s status updates makes me depressed? Really?
If I was smart I would just scroll right through the ones I missed and start fresh, but I can’t do it. I feel like I NEED to catch up. I don’t wanna miss anything.
Or the times when my son is asking me for more apple juice and I am telling him “one second sweetie” because I am just finishing reading my twitter feed. Really?
Is it that important that I must ignore my son’s innocent request for apple juice? I think not.
And then there are the times when you follow someone, but they don’t follow you back. Or you @ reply them and get ignored. Or even better, when you are so busy yourself that you can not reply to all the people that have @ replied YOU.
Or what about when you click on someone else’s twitter profile and you see that they have 6 times the number of followers as you. Does that ever make you feel insufficient? Like, “oh….she’s probably cooler than me because she has 4,000 followers.”
*Here’s a little inside on that. You can buy twitter followers. Not saying that anyone I follow has, but just throwing it out there. Don’t always base how “awesome” you think someone is based on how many followers they do or do not have.
I know some really freakin great people who don’t have hundreds of twitter followers. I also know some really great people who have THOUSANDS of twitter followers.
Or you see people building friendships or talking about taking trips together and you instantly wonder why your not “cool” enough to be included? It’s like high school all over again sometimes.
Then there’s the whole insecurity of wondering if people are being “real” or if they are being “fake”. It’s so easy to be whoever you want to be behind a computer screen, right? Trust me, I’ve seen a few 20/20’s in my day and I did watch the movie Catfish. Are people being genuine? Or are they creating this persona of someone they really aren’t? Just throwing it out there. It’s crossed my mind a time or two.
What I am trying to learn is that my identity is not in twitter. Or my blog. Or facebook. (Or my mini). Social media does not define who I am. You know who defines me? Jesus.
Do you think Jesus would worry about how many twitter followers he has?
No.
So why am I.
Just as a disclaimer, I want to say that I do adore the friendships that I have built on twitter. I’m just being real with my feelings (because you know me, that’s what I do – no filter ). I LOVE interacting with my twitter friends. I’m just saying…sometimes…I love it too much to the point where it consumes me.
I know. This is totally a personal problem. I don’t think it calls for therapy, but definitely a good talk with God is in my future.
“.. and I did see the movie Catfish.” Haha! Great post! It’s so true. Social media, as addicting and all-encompassing as it may be, does not and should not define us as women. Understandably so, I realize that so many of my “tweeps” are more than their avatars, @’s and hashtags! Twitter has also given me a glimpse into a different side of some bloggers.. sides that.. well.. were better left unseen. It makes me a bit nauseous to see how some people can really abuse the privilege! And you’re right. Jesus totally doesn’t care about the number of Twitter followers he has. Why should we? 🙂 Happy Monday!
OMG I so know what you mean. That feeling of checking your feed after a few hours of being gone, ugh the panic that shoots through me trying to catch up is ridiculous. I hate that, but, like you, I don’t want to miss out on anything. What if someone is pregnant and I missed it? What if someone asked a question I could have answered? It’s insanity and I have contemplated taking a Twitter break. J even took my phone from me while we watched a movie so I couldn’t update…sad but true.
you crack me up, girl. Love that picture.
Quite honestly, I know what you mean. You’re not crazy. Twitter is simply an outlet for people and I think the problem isn’t you, or twitter, but maybe some of the people you follow. People who don’t reply to tweets… (I have them too, some of which we both follow.) I don’t know why they are on twitter. Especially those who aren’t privacy protected- it’s like they want the audience, but they don’t want to interact with them? It’s odd. Some people have way too high of an ego, and a knack for making themselves appear much better than they are, and use twitter to feed their egos.. Like people can’t see through that. I think they are the ones with the issue. We use twitter to connect with friends and while it’s important to keep these little habits in check, it serves its purpose. Don’t let the losers get you down.
Also, some people ARE fake. I’ll admit that I don’t unfollow just because of this, but it saddens me for them. It saddens me to go to a popular, well known blog (just did this last week) and out of curiosity looked at her archives in her first blog. Two words: DIFFERENT PERSON. At first, she was such a nice girl. Now? She thinks she’s a celebrity and some kind of blog authority. It’s really sad. I feel sorry for people who have to build themselves up by creating a persona online for the purpose of feeding her ego and surviving low self esteem. It sounds like they just want to be liked, but don’t know a healthy way of doing so.
I felt the same way, so last week I deleted my account 🙁 As much as I loved it, there were some things like you mentioned above that would get me down and make me feel bad about myself! I can’t let something like twitter do that, haha.
But Mandy is NOT allowed to delete *her* account. For the record. NOT ALLOWED!!!! hahaha
Mandy,
I thought this was a great post!! I don’t have twitter, but I feel the same way about facebook sometimes. It is crazy how much time in my day I can find to be on facebook but how I struggle to find time to get into the word or get on the floor and build blocks with my kids. It can totally consume me, and really affect my self esteem. You are so dead on, social media does not define us! We are a child of God, and the only thing that defines us is who we are in Jesus Christ. I love your blog, I love how real you are on here. I also have loved watching you grow in your relationship with God. You and Jeff should be so proud of yourselves, you guys are doing a great job and Jesus is going to continue to bless your family! Have a great day Mandy!!
I can definitely appreciate this post, Mandy. I suppose because I’m not a true “blogger” and don’t have a site that hundreds or thousands read, but I definitely feel left out and a little too much like high school a little too often. However, I can’t just give it up. Or, like you said, NOT read through the entire 250 tweets I missed while I was busy doing REAL LIFE THINGS. I definitely have toyed with just deleting my account. For the few that I follow and respond to me, etc… there are too many that annoy the heck out of me. And while they’re pretentious, whiney and stuck up? It is MY fault for continuing to read them. I really do enjoy some of the relationships and people that I have met though and I feel like I’ll be missing something if I delete my account. Ahh geeze. Internet decisions!
Keepin’ it real….as always (one of your most endearing qualities)! 🙂 Love the post and the cute pic of you holding the sign! xoxo
Love following your blog and you on twitter. This post is so true. I feel the same way. I havent created a huge following but I feel like I know the people I have become followers of. I love to see the things tjat they do every day that I can relate to and say oh.. Its not juste! Thanks for keeping it real!!