Read: Philippians 4: 4-8
Connecting with friends is something that we all enjoy and Facebook has been
one of the most wonderful ways by which we connect with our friends. But today
Facebook is more than a source of connection. It is almost like your second
home where you display sometimes quite unknowingly the most sensitive and
intimate aspects of your personal life. Thus today it is quite normal for
friends to post their wedding snap, or some intimate snaps with their
spouses or snaps of a college reunion or snaps of the latest vacation that the
family had. But there are times when I feel very strange that there are people
who even dare to post those snaps which are of very private in nature. I think
today through Facebook the line of distinction between what should be shown in
public and what should be shown in private seems to have vanished. Not only
that, all the snaps that we post, are the snaps that shows the best
aspects and features of one's life. Looking at the all the snaps that are being
posted, with everyone one smiling, couples hugging each other, families
enjoying intimacy on a vacation, it unknowingly tends to convey a feeling
that in each and every individuals life, home and in his work place, everything
is wonderful and everyone is living a blessed life. Does all the posting, the
snaps really show the true side of one's life?. Recently a group of
researchers from the University of Berlin did a study on the topic "Envy
of Facebook: A Hidden Threat of User's Life Satisfaction. The researchers were
Hanna Krasnova, Helena Weninger, Thomas Widjaja and Peter Buxmann and what they
did was to research whether all the social information's that are being
transmitted by people on Facebook leads to undesirable outcomes like jealousy,
increase in social tension, social overload, isolation and even depression?.
The study concluded that people tend to be emotionally upset or angry,
sometimes even frustrated after a Facebook use, may be because
their friends did not click the like button or did not make any positive comments,
and this has led to some element of social isolation in the Facebook user. But
the worst part was the arousal of the feeling of envy when a person was
involved in social searching, social browsing. This meant that when we follow
the stories of our friends, or their profiles or other significant aspects of
our friends life, like viewing their vacation snaps or the pose of our friends
as a happy go lucky couple, the cozy couple snaps, it creates in the
Facebook user a sense of envy leading to different negative emotional
responses. I think this study is significant because one of the strange aspects
in the use of Facebook is that all that we see or shown in Facebook may
be unrealistic images of people, and events. Viewing this tend to bring in a
feeling that when I am grappling with issues and crises in life, the life
of my friends and others are rosy and they are enjoying the best in life.
This may be true or may not be true. Thus what is important for us is to
understand and view our life in the correct perspective. Not in the perspective
as is depicted by our friends on Facebook. Therefore, let us ask ourselves
whether we tend to compare our life and ones state of contentment and meaning
by what others do? If the yardstick of how if should feel in life is dictated
by what my friends do and post, then I think we have a very unrealistic and a
distorted view of life.
Paul in his letter to Philippians gives us one of the most profound spiritual
truths on how to have a correct perspective of one's life, a perspective that
will help us to overcome those guilt feeling, those feelings of depression,
envy and jealousy that may arise out of Facebook browsing or social browsing
for that matter. In Philippians 4: 4-8, Paul states as a Christian we can
receive the peace that the Lord gives to us, peace that gives us meaning and
contentment in life [v: 7]. But how do we get that peace of God?. Paul states
what is needed in our life is to always rejoice in the Lord[ v; 4]. Rejoicing
that comes in the life of a believer when he/she is not anxious about anything
[ v: 6], and this loss of anxiety comes to a believer when he/she is always
ready to be thankful to the Lord at all times and also with a life style
where he/she offers his/her petition to the Lord[ v: 6]. Paul further goes
about when he states that the correct perspective of life can only be
understood if we discern what the goal and objective of our life is. Paul
states in [v: 8 ], that one should always desire what is noble, true, what is
right, what is lovely, whatever is excellent and praiseworthy. Here is Paul
stating that the objective in life should be measured on the standards such a
nobility, truthfulness, what is honest and genuine. It is tragic that today our
lives are lives where we are always in the state of complaining of what we do
not have, comparing on what we do not have in relation with others and thus
always living in a state of depression and emotional anguish,. Paul is
convicting all of us to lead authentic Christian life, where our the joy and
sadness in our life is not measured on what our friend do and post on Facebook,
but consciously building our life, developing a life style where one is
able to be thankful to the Lord, thus bringing a state of rejoicing in
ones life. This is a life lived with acquisition of what is noble, just
and right. This attitude and life style does not guarantee crisis free life,
but just as Paul exhorts, let us submit all our fears and our anxieties and our
crisis to the Lord through prayer and supplication. When we do that our Lord
will strengthen us in our quest to lead a meaningful and authentic Christian
life. Let us this day decide that it is not the post or snaps on Facebook that
will determine my state of happiness, despair or contentment in life, but the
perspective of life that I am able to bring to my life because of my
relationship with my Lord.