When I decided to resume blogging at the beginning of the year, one of the first things I did was give my blog a complete makeover. From the layout, to format, to the content.
I even painted and redecorated. 😊 Everything was refreshed and updated to more accurately reflect the content I prefer to make public in 2024. Well, everything except my profile pic which is at least 10+ years old. I was having a fabulous, flat-iron hair day at my favorite steak house. That pic will eventually be updated as well.
In any event, while in the process of doing all of that the thought occured to me how vastly different it is to "meet" someone online, than it used to be meeting someone in person. Up until about 20 years ago (give or take), when you met someone (in person) and began to form a friendship with them, you were simply meeting that person in the context of who they currently are.
What they think, today. What their politics are, today. What faith or lack of faith they have, today. You had no way of digging into their past to discover who they were or what they thought or believed 5 or 10 years ago and the very idea of even being willing or able to do that probably struck most of us as sort of sketchy, stalker type behavior. That's the sort of thing you may or may not learn as you get to know the person and they share some of that information with you. A sort of natural progression in an actual relationship dynamic.
It's probably not a small thing that we are literally the first people in all of human history to ever write down (or in our case, type out) every thought, every opinion, every like, dislike on every topic under the sun, political or religious position, and then publish it for the entire world to see. Day after day, month after month, year after year for nearly 2 decades now on social media platforms alone, but even blogs like this from the early 2000's and personal web pages going back to the early 90's for many of us. While the world has always had writers and dreamers, the internet and social media in particular, has given a platform to the entire world to be a writer, a dreamer or as the world likes to call it now, an influencer.
We're also the first people in all of human history to be able to just "google" anyone you want, and read everything they've ever posted, good, bad & ugly. It's like we're all writing our own reviews of ourselves that anyone can just log on and read.
Kind of wild when you think of it that way but, that's what we're doing. 😲
Earlier this year while tidying up my blog, I found countless posts containing positions I no longer hold on various social issues, opinions I no longer have on all sorts of things, and loads of sinful, cringe attitude I no longer entertain. These are things I no longer want "out there" in the world, representing me today because it's simply no longer who I am. Those who knew me then may or may not recall how I was 5, 10 or 20 years ago, but I've decided I prefer to do things the way human beings have done since the dawn of humanity.
Simply, to grow up. Then allow the young, full of girl-boss attitude, mouthy, crass, often unkind, immature me to just fade from memory, hopefully, the way those kinds of memories fade in a natural progression in any normal relationship. Instead of being documented in an easily searchable format to showcase every dumb, immature, ignorant thing I ever said. Not that every post I ever published was full of this kind of immaturity, enough of them were over the years that it demanded my attention to be sure. While we all go through that phase of life, I'm leaving that in the past where it belongs. And simply, starting over, from here. Starting over from a far more compassionate and quiet spirit, as the Lord has led over the years.
I've had some pretty extreme thoughts about social media over the years but at the end of the day it's really just a tool. I know some use it the wrong way but I see so many people using it for really good things and I've deliberately decided for 2024 and going forward, I'm choosing to use it as a tool that hopefully showcases God's grace, some encouragement for whoever might need it and maybe even a smile or a laugh or two, to brighten someone's day.
I hope this has encouraged you in some way. 😊