As the holidays end, I have done my yearly ritual, which is to go into Facebook and change my profile from my Santa hat photo to a regular face photo, it's sort of a little depressing ritual, as I don't like when the holidays end.
But each year, as I go into my files to swap out avatar pictures, I end up revisiting my life from the past few years, the years I've had an account with Facebook. It's quite interesting to see the changes in me and my posts over the years and it's a trip down memory lane, most happy, a few bittersweet.
I see my brother Joey from a year ago, just before his passing, I see my family, a few years younger, I see friends I no longer associate with in the same way, mainly because our interests have changed or they have moved away. I see birthdays, and family pizza night and relatives I've visited or who have visited me. I see trips I've taken and I see reminders of events before, during and after. I love my New York ComicCon photos, that's one of my favorite times of the year, so is October and Thanksgiving and of course various travels I've taken.
I don't check into places much on Facebook, but it's interesting to see the places I did check in, I wonder why did I check in here but not there? I go to the gym a few times a week, but I see that I've only checked in a handful of times, why those times? Were those days more special for some reason?
I feel like I am doing it right, as I see these events, I see these photos, I see these check-ins. I have friends who post selfies of themselves daily, they really don't do much more. Are they doing it wrong? When they look back at their timelines can they see what life was like or do they just see if they have another wrinkle from a bunch of selfies back from a few years back?
I have friends who only post politics, I hate that. I have friends who only post complaints, I hate that. I have friends who don't post much, either they are leaving me out of their select posting list or they just don't post. I have friends who post every second of every day, the are living their own little reality show by posting, "I'm in bed now." "I am having a cocktail," "I am mad," "I am glad," etc. I have a friend, actually a former employee, who only posts about liquor, she shows pictures of cocktails, liquor bottles and her desires to be drinking morning, noon and night. I am often tempted to say something, but I feel it's none of my business. Her hundreds of Facebook friends seem to keep quiet too. Not good. She can literally go back and look at her life on Facebook through the years and see her moods through which liquor or drink images she posted at any given moment.
I have a cousin who just posts feelings, these I love because he leaves us wondering, for instance, he'll post a happy face and they saying "I am feeling Amused," or "I am feeling determined," or "I am feeling excited." I often leave a comment under that saying, "Do tell." But he never tells. I love that.
Most of the time I post things on Facebook for myself, even if they are being shared with my friends. It's a diary of my life. I didn't plan it like that, but it actually is. When I look at photos I can place myself back into the situation, I can feel myself back on that day at that moment in time. I think I only post things when I'm feeling strongly about something; usually happy things, so everything isn't there as I don't post when I am unhappy or when I'm going to bed or eating breakfast.
If you go into someone's personal page and look at it randomly, you really can get a sense of who that person is. So in this new year, we should think about what we're posing. Or maybe not, by calculating the posts, it maybe just takes away from the actual reality and truth of the whole thing. So maybe we shouldn't think about what we're posting and just post away.