29 September - Thoughts

Image credit: "Speech Bubble" by Boykung via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

On this day, at this exact moment, imagine that all social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, etc.) failed. No warning, just stopped working all over the world. We rely so much on social media for maintaining friendship, obtaining news, and fixing boredom that we've forgotten to live and appreciate things as they are in the moment. What if instead of turning to Twitter to live tweet our favorite tv shows, we turned to books instead? Leaving handwritten notes on the inside pages for new readers sharing thoughts and giving personal commentary.

When someone is going through a rough patch in their life, we are quick to tell them, 'everything is going to be fine', 'just hang in there because things will get better soon'. But, what if they don't? What if for whatever reason, that situation wasn't meant to get better and be restored back to some kind of normalcy or at least doesn't happen soon? Should we be more careful about what we say? Instead of giving a quick feel good answer, what if we accepted the fact that we don't truly know what will happen, that we hope for the best and offered to stick with them through it all?

What if our actions and our words matched instead of contradicted each other? The people that we choose as friends and partners might look different.

Imagine someone you don't like. Now imagine they presented you a book that contained their entire life story, including their personal drives behind their actions, their desires, emotions and weaknesses. We're so quick to condemn them and in extreme cases, wish death upon them because we only read a section or two of the book.

When a post goes up on Facebook that someone is in a new relationship, engaged, married or posts a picture of them and a romantic partner, that post quickly gains hundreds of likes and dozens of "congratulations" comments. Ever wonder how many of those people actually mean it? On the flip side, if someone posts something about being newly single, enjoying some aspect of singlehood or a picture of themselves, the post doesn't receive as many likes and comments. So why must we as a society place higher importance on romantic relationships and shun singlehood?

What if the challenging or banning of a book made news headlines faster than "news" about celebs?

What if we didn't have the phrase "black lives matter {too}" because bigotry and racial bias wasn't a thing?