Can all the social media moms take a day off? Admittedly, I am not a huge social media user. I love a good doom scroll and have several of the apps, but I don’t post. I can’t really explain why. I have made posts in the past, but it was never something that I got hooked on. So, coming from the place of the conscious observer, I struggle to even doom scroll in peace with some of the triggering posts I see. Where do I begin with my list of grievances?! In no particular order, here we go…
First of all, can all the women stop using their hands, and particularly their pointer fingers when they take a video of themselves to post whatever it is they declare themselves an expert in? Its always the same, the angle of the video is what they feel is the best angle of their face and you can tell they’re looking more at themselves than focusing on the camera. Then they go into whatever enlightening content they have and raise at least one hand and always with the pointer finger. Like that lends credibility to their words. Next up, why is every post turning into story time? I’m looking for quick gratification. Not a short post that is intended to put you in suspense and make you curious about what the secret answer is, “10 things I stopped doing, that changed my life…”. Nope, scroll on. Not only am I confident you lack the wisdom that would be life changing, but I’m annoyed at the tactic. That leads me to the subtle brag. Always dressed in the “I hope this can help someone else”. No ma’am, you’re flaunting what worked for you and want accolades and to brag about your success. How wonderful to celebrate your wins! Let’s start there and recognize that. Turning it into something else entirely is where I get annoyed. Am I the only one who sees through this for what it is? Another way this subtlety comes through is the #Blessed. The flowery posts about loved ones for birthdays and anniversaries, talking about how wonderful a person is. I can’t read these. Not because I’m embittered about life. Don’t get me wrong, I love celebrating women and their achievements, showing gratitude, and supporting one another. I do this personally and often – in sincere ways. Some of my closest friends create these flowery posts about their partners, friends, kids, and I can’t read them either. I don’t know exactly when this practice started, and now I feel like people don’t even know why they do it, except there’s this pressure to do so or there will be a perception they don’t care. Back to the social media moms…the posts about their kids and perfect family photos followed by either a post with them tripping over themselves about how wonderful their kiddos are or how hard mom life is, but the contrast with the photo is contradicting. See, the message is, being a mom is so hard, but I’m so good at being mom and my family is perfect – just look at us and congratulate me on the good job I’m doing. Yes, being a mom is incredibly hard and yes, it is rewarding too. My beef with this is that this doesn’t represent reality, but rather the reality they want people to believe.
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