A Good Relationship with SNS?

It's been really cold lately, and we've even had snow! I was born in winter, but I never liked winter temperature. Talking about weather is a good or safe conversation starter in Japan (or anywhere else in the world, I guess?)... Actually, tomorrow (January 20th) is my birthday! Not that excited about that, though... I'll turn 24! I won't do anything really special for my birthday. No big party, no birthday cake, nothing too special. Some people just love parties and stuff, which is no problem at all. You do you, and just do whatever that makes you happy. But I'm not feeling like doing parties lately. I just want to spend a peaceful time. So, for birthday, I'll just go out to a burger restaurant with my boyfriend because we miss those big ol' American burgers a lot. I even told him I don't need a present and all I want is to spend a good time with him.

So... today's topic. A good relationship with SNS (e.g. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.). Almost everyone uses SNS, and it's really hard, frankly, to find a person who doesn't use any kind of social media. Well, talking about me, I love writing stuff, and expressing myself in sentences (why would I have my own blog if I didn't like expressing myself?!). I'm on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I used to have the Snapchat app, but I deleted it. I mostly watched other people's snaps, and I posted my snap only once.

I have one policy about Twitter. I don't follow friends in real life. There are a few exceptions, though, to be honest. But I don't follow my classmates. Oh, I don't follow my sister either. It's not that I don't get along with them. Or that I tweet things that I can't let my friends see. I used to follow my classmates, and people whom I had talked with in real life.

But I stopped doing that. Because I noticed I didn't have to do that. I have a bad tendency to compare myself with others. And I got to know that knowing what my classmates are doing all the time was making me depressed. I go to a private university in Japan, and some students are just rich. I actually get a student loan to go to school, which means that I am not rich at all. If I follow my classmates, I end up seeing pictures of them on vacations, buying stuff, and going out for fancy restaurants, etc. Basically those are things that I don't get to do (a lot). And looking at those photos is not good for my heart. I don't hate my classmates just for that reason; I know they are nice people. It's just I feel sorry or bad for myself not being able to do the same as them.

Plus, I felt it was noisy that seeing those tweets. I see my classmates in school. Why do I have to see them saying things, and talking 24/7? I mean... I love having alone time as much as I love being around with people. Some of the people I follow were definitely my classmates, but did we actually know each other? No. Those were people I had never talked with. I did care those people as my classmates, but I thought comparing myself with those people whom I didn't even talked with and feeling bad about myself was very strange. So I stopped doing that.

SNS should be fun. They were created so that people can have fun. If SNS are making you feel bad, you don't have a healthy relationship with them. Looking back my old relationship with Twitter, now I feel the current relationship is much better. I still follow people I know in real life on Facebook and Instagram, though. Actually, because of that, I don't have to follow those people in every other social media outlet. Well, even on Instagram, I do "clean up" who I follow. Do I really want to see pictures from this person? Am I interested? I ask these questions, and if the answer is no, I just simply unfollow them. I stopped following people just because I know them or because the person followed me (to look nice).

I think it connects to saying goodbye to materialism. Having a lot is not always good. Assessing what makes you happy and what doesn't, and focusing on what actually does make you happy is the key. SNS has become a part of our everyday life, so it may be difficult to notice that that's the one reason why you're not happy. But because SNS are a part of our everyday life, it's even more important to have a healthy relationship with them.