No mo’ F.O.M.O

This weekend, my social media accounts were flooded with photos and videos from Coachella music festival… and it’s only Weekend 1. Yes, the endless Snapchats and artsy photos were a little excessive and irritating but I caught myself doing something even more obnoxious. After almost every Snap I opened, I muttered something along the lines of, “I wish I was at Coachella right now.”

I quickly learned that social media makes it difficult to be satisfied with where you are and what you are doing. Rather, we are amongst the company of our friends, staring at our screens and wishing we were elsewhere. Instead, we should try to enjoy the company we are with and what we are doing. If we never looked at our social media and learned that there is something else happening, the thought of being elsewhere would never even cross our minds.

In a sense, it is a double edged sword since that is the purpose of social media, right? To make people wish they had what you have, or be where you are. On the other hand, we need to catch ourselves when we become envious of what is happening on a screen and ignoring what we are blessed enough to have right in front of our noses.

Although Coachella may be the exception to this rule, I often find that everything looks more fun on social media. If they have the time to post it, it probably means it is not that great. When I think about it, most of my favorite memories have never appeared on social media or even come close to it because I was too busy enjoying myself to think about needing to send a Snapchat.

On top of that, most people post to present an image of themselves that may or may not coincide with who they are away from social media. Nobody posts pictures for the world to see on their worst days; rather they put their best foot forward and share their highlights. Essentially, Facebook and Instagram are highlight reels of individuals’ lives. Try not to compare your story to others’ highlight reels.

Instead of spending your weekend wishing you were at Coachella based off of Snapchats and Instagrams, we should try to enjoy where you are and who you are with. Life is too short to be taking advantage of the here and now. And hey, Coachella will still be there next year.