Have you noticed how important social media has become in our lives? I'm sure you have!
Social Media is a revolution that has shaken up our lives! We spend a big portion of our time interacting through it: when we wake up, when we eat, at work, when we hang out, and even in the bathroom. We must understand which are our conscious and also our subconscious drivers, so we can use social media as a tool, instead of becoming a tool for it.
This reflection is what I found by questioning myself about it!
I acknowledge that from the wide range of possibilities in social media I mostly use Facebook and Instagram, both for different purposes, but definitely I invest more time today in Social Media than 5 years ago. Which makes me reflect on it and asking the question:
What is the role of social media in my life?
Let’s start with Facebook. My personal profile I basically use it for two main purposes: first to share photos about my travels, places I have visited that I have found inspiring, and reflections I have written about different life matters that I consider can be useful to someone else too. Why? For many reasons, such as I would like my friends to know what’s going on in a general level with my life, but mostly because I would like to inspire others to travel, to visit wonderful places and to self-reflect about what they really want to do in this life. The second reason I use Facebook is to check on what is going on in my friends around the world lives, as I have very little contact with most of the people I care and appreciate, Facebook has become a very useful tool to know what’s going on with them, so I can (at least virtually) share their happiness, their successes or sometimes their pain.
My Instagram account is another story. My main account is all about Yoga and Conscious Living & Health. Once, I read that Yogis that post photos about themselves doing Asanas, are all narcissistic. I don’t know about other people, but I can speak about me. It would be absolutely dishonest from my side to say I don't feel happy when one of my posts receives many "likes" or comments. There is certainly a lot of narcissism, it is satisfying for my ego to see nice photos of myself, and it is satisfying to find others liking something about “me”, but I consider that more than narcissism there is a subconscious need for being accepted, recognized, which is an intrinsic human need in many other areas other than social media. Social media just reflects this and satisfies it on a very easy way.
Besides the narcissism and approval need, I have rational and conscious purposes when sharing pictures or videos. You will find that not all the videos or photos are prepared. Yes, many times I pose for photos, and sometimes I just use the videos of my morning practice where my face is all washed and my hair is messy, where my postures might not be on its best expression or alignment, but they are real. I like to post both... and the main intention behind any of my posts, is to share my experiences in the path of Yoga. Not only in the Asana practice, but also in how it’s philosophy can be applied to reflect, learn and transform any area of life. So, I use photos as an easy way to engage people to read about my thoughts, not because I want everybody to think like me, but because we are all in a search of happiness (which ends up being a self-search) and others experiences can serve us to see through a different lenses, to question, to inspire, to create controversy and reaction.
I also have professional interests when using social media. It is also my intention to create interaction with people who, like me, are questioning the machine in which we have been taught to live, that are looking to transform their lives, and so, they might be interested in participating in my trainings, workshops and retreats. But this is just the value add of the primary intentions described above.
So, this is my naked truth as of today, seen through my own glasses. Perceptions and intentions can always change and we all have a different one. There is no recipe to live life. What you have found that is correct for you doesn’t have to be correct for others. For me, it all comes down to learning to see our own selves, to see our conditionings, the patterns of our minds, our shells and layers, so we can embrace it all, so we can finally break what has to be broken and transform what has to be transformed. And finally, besides and beyond social media, we can learn and experience real kindness and love in our hearts.