A print on a shirt says, "I truly hope your life's as awesome as your facebook posts say." Amusing. But more than that, it got me thinking.
Of course, I understood it as sarcasm, a bitter remark from somebody who has seen "awesome" posts of another on facebook, but does not believe it's half the truth of that other person's life. It could also be a well-meaning wish, but that would be a weak conjecture considering that it is printed on a shirt, and it just has to be funny, at least attention-getting. It cannot mean what it says. Even if it does, it would still sanction disbelief, otherwise, "hope" should be replaced with "believe" or just remove the first four words altogether.
So, it must be sarcastic. A statement aimed at people who keep on posting pictures or shout-outs about how they are having a great time, a great life, every day. Sometimes, every four hours. Some of them could be completely lying. Others probably just leave out the horrible parts.
I have heard about how people make up stories to post on facebook, just to show how amazing their life has been. It is difficult to imagine why anyone would do that, but I do remember posting my excitement during one of my backpacking trips. The bus I was on had free wifi, so I posted, "On a bus to Palaui!" Of course, Palaui is a beautiful place to be in, so that post would draw envy from many who'd read it. But, what I did not post was that I had to be in line for 4 hours and almost missed the last trip. When I finally got on the bus, it so cramped I could barely breathe. But, I posted something that would conjure images of me reclined comfortably on a bus to paradise. Fine, that's not completely lying. It's the truth, as I was really on a bus to Palaui, not on a van or worse, on foot.
But what is it about people posting fun stuff all the time on facebook that warrants sarcasm? It's optimistic and positive. Shouldn't it be better than reading posts about how they are crying now because it rained, and rain makes them dumb? Surely, for me, I think happy posts on my facebook homepage is way better. For how difficult is it to be happy over another's happiness?
Is it envy or one's innate aversion to lying and hypocrisy? I find it hard to believe it's the latter, since we cannot really be certain about the truth of the post unless you are with the one posting it. I give everyone the blanket belief of the honesty of their posts. It must be envy, then. Well. it could also be annoyance by the fact that his/her posts come every hour about the happy life, blocking out all other more interesting posts (what's more interesting than the happy life? Toasted siopao. Believe me) . But that one does not deserve sarcasm, that deserves anger and an immediate unfriending. Seriously.
I envy people who find joy in almost every second of their day. Compared to forever, our lives are very short, and once a moment passes, it is gone. I have learned almost too late the importance of celebrating the present, and what better way to immortalize it than sharing it on social media with friends? So, for people who have tons of happy stuff to share every day, it's hard to decide whether I want them to stop posting their awesome lives or not. I draw inspiration from those when my day is not as alive as I would like it to be. On the other hand, it drives me nuts when their happy posts are about something I couldn't and haven't done, but would like to. It makes me want to wish they were lying.
In the end, what IS an awesome life?
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