My Summer on Facebook

One of the disadvantages of having Facebook is hearing about people’s exotic summer holidays. It gets overwhelming, especially when you have over four hundred Facebook friends. Day after day, I am faced with the fact that everyone seems to be having an extraordinary summer holiday and ours has been a little simple this year.


It’s not unusual for people to post,

“Only ten more days till I leave for Spain, Portugal or Poland. Or “I Just got back from Egypt, Indonesia, Greece or France.”


And, do you know what?

People even post updates from these fantastic places. And I am sure it is not to rub it in! Most every photograph that gets posted on Facebook is spectacular in some way.

Do you remember the days when you’d pick up your holiday pictures from your local photo shop and bring the batch to work, or to a friends house and spend time talking about your trip?


Well, it seems to me like those days are mostly gone. We are leaving our digital photographs on our hard drives, or posting them on Facebook. Something has gone amuck, I think.

As a generation of digital photographers, we are taking thousands of photographs, but we spending less time face to face with others and talking about them.

The other part about seeing other people’s summer through the lens of Facebook is for the most part, people put their best foot forward when posting status updates on their Facebook accounts.


You mostly only hear about the good and exciting moments people’s lives. Rarely does anyone post,

“I had a fight with my husband about his socks, or the toilet rolls left on the washroom floor before we left for the beach.”

It’s not very often someone says,

“I really get tired of making dinner every day, the laundry and housework are getting to me, especially on the sunny days. I don’t need a holiday, I need a maid!”


No, in fact it’s quite the opposite.

People on Facebook are mostly

                         perky and positive.

 I decided if you can’t beat them-- join them!

So I started to post equally positive comments about my Bucket List summer. The likes of:

 “Just got from bike riding with the kids on Centre Island, the ferry is fantastic!”

got posted on my Facebook wall.

Posting positive comments like,

“Morning at St. Lawrence Market, afternoon at baseball playoffs, evening walk by the lake, swimming at Sunnyside pool, or enjoyed our visit to the zoo, the baseball tournament in Niagara Falls was FANTASTIC!”

has become a ritual I look forward to. The habit has over a period of time helped me focus on the positive aspects of my day. At times, it actually got me out of the house more. It began to lift my mood, just thinking about the blessings of the day.

I have begun to see Toronto through the eyes of a tourist—it really is a fun and beautiful city.


I know it sounds strange, but Facebook this summer, has helped me in the spiritual realm.


I have had to mortify feelings of jealousy when repeatedly hearing about other people’s spectacular trips, grow in humility when faced I haven’t been invited to every party under the moon.

 Instead I have had to look at the pictures of the party and face the fact my company wasn't needed or wanted. 

I have had to learn how to sensitively manoeuvre questions from my kids,

“Mom, when are we going to

Spain,

 Rome, Poland, Portugal, Egypt,

 England or  France?”

I have had to grow in meekness when one more person decides to delete me as their friend.

I know that a lot of people are bewildered over the popularity of Facebook, but I have come to see that Facebook does an outstanding job of helping city folk build a feeling of community.

In my own case, I have two accounts,one corporate,the other faith based.

Where else can I go and connect with over 400 Catholic faith filled friends?

They post links to great Catholic articles, respond to prayer requests with prayer and of course give me a thumbs up for posting positive comments about my comings and goings.

I have taken a close look at my Bucket List for the summer. Most of the items have been crossed off. Just a few things left, Buskerfest,  a visit to the CNE and yes, I plan to print the photographs from vacations of summers past and put them in a photo album.


Some things about the good old days are worth having back!

Here it is August 2013 -- And researchers have found what many of us have been thinking for YEARS! What a thought provoking article! CLICK HERE or HERE for the clinical study!