Say It To My Face

It’s no secret that people hate confrontation. But it’s odd how people even avoid good confrontations.

The world of social media has made it painfully obvious. We’ll text or email rather than use the phone. But there is a certain kind of Facebook post we’ve all seen that points out how strangely we deal with expressing emotion:

“Just want to wish my darling husband Geoff a wonderful birthday. You are the best thing in my life and I love you so much.”

“To our wonderful daughter Gina. I can’t believe you are one already! Love you more each day.”

“Happy Birthday to our dear son Peter. We are so proud of you. Have a great day.”

Geoff, Gina & Peter are probably in the same room as the person typing the message or at least having a birthday dinner with them later that day, so can have these feelings expressed directly to them. And one-year-old Gina doesn’t even have a Facebook account yet, so she won’t see the post. This method of expressing your feelings to those closest to you is extremely bizarre.

(And as a side-note, you don’t have to wait for a birthday to express how much you love someone.)

“It’s odd how people avoid good confrontations.”

We could go into why people do these public posts. We could talk about how people in this day & age struggle to have an experience without publishing it, and every thought is a status update. We could talk about people wanting to publically acknowledge those they love.

But social media is best used to connect with those you don’t see daily. Those you see all the time are a different story.

Connect with those closest to you by talking directly to them.

And tell them face to face how you feel about them – that you love them and why.

You don’t need to be shy, it’s rather special to have a real moment with someone in our fabricated social media world.

Social media is a terrific tool, but it’s not the ultimate. At times, social media is the anti-social option.

Let’s Talk.