I did it again this week; I hopped around through a series of blogs (of people I don’t know, of course) and started to feel that my own life is a little depressing. Beautiful people with their beautiful houses and beautiful kids and amazing vacation photos and occasional minor “problems” described in humorous anecdotal form jumped off all the pages. And then I thought about my very real problems and stresses and started to wonder where I had gone wrong.
I had to remind myself AGAIN that blogs are not reality. They are one version of the truth – the version that the blogger is comfortable sharing with the whole huge internet world. Whatever the motives, whether to be upbeat, to spare people the details, to protect privacy or preserve relationships, or to simply make themselves look better, most people don’t share the really tough stuff on their blogs. And even those who do – and who get some notoriety and traffic because of it – are still self-editing to some degree. Someone might write in detail about the anguish of infertility or what it’s like to struggle with a child’s health problems. That same person might be very uncomfortable posting unflattering pictures. Few people blog in detail about financial or marital woes. I don’t have a problem with this – some things are properly kept private – I just have to remind myself that blogs by their nature skip over some of those unfortunate details that we are all too aware of in our own lives.
Is my life really that bad? No, of course not. It just feels that way when I hold it up for comparison to the Photoshopped version of someone else’s.
3 comments:
I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels that way! It’s hard seeing people, who are my age, that have 5 children, are able to stay home, have perfectly decorated houses and an endless supply of great (and very good looking) friends, who they seem to take these extravagant vacations with every month. I guess the saying, ‘the grass is always greener on the other side,’ applies here.
I've felt the same. It's odd how reading my family and friends' blogs typically cheers me up ("Hey look - news from....."), but when I start to wander the blogosphere I start comparing. I'm trying to stick to familiar blogs (and ALWAYS enjoy reading yours); we'll see how long I last!
Who's blogs are you reading? I guess I just am not a good stalker. I say jazz up your page and exploit your adorable children and have Jared contribute a story or too...I promise it will increase your self appeal and keep me entertained.
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