Should We Get "Real" on Facebook?

   By SheSpeaksTeam  Mar 05, 2013
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If a friend randomly stopped by on a Sunday morning would they be likely to see smiling, clean children playing nicely together in your immaculately clean home? Probably not, but it’s a good bet that if a friend were to check out your Facebook pics you posted on Sunday morning everything would turn up roses. Screaming toddlers, dirty socks on the floor, and the argument you had with your husband will probably never show up on Facebook.

It’s not surprising that many of us build up these squeaky clean personas on Facebook that might not exactly mirror what’s going on at home. Sarah Emily Tuttle-Singer recently posted a humorous piece on the parenting blog Raising Kvell where she urged parents to be more real on Facebook. Tuttle-Singer writes, “My life on Facebook is an airbrushed and instagrammed image of my real life.” She adds, “Most of the time, I think I’m a decent mom, and I think I’m giving my kids a pretty good life. But I also think I’d be a better mom if I stopped pretending, and making friends on Facebook feel like they have to pretend as well. Keeping up with the status messages is exhausting. And it turns friends into frenemies.”

Lying or making our lives look more ordered or impressive on Facebook is nothing new and many are guilty. FoxNews released the findings from “Consumer Reports” that shows 25% of Facebook users admit to lying on their profiles (and that’s only the ones who cop to the fibs).

Are you guilty of fibbing on Facebook or only showing the happy moments in life?

What do you think would happen if more of us told the truth on Facebook?

 

 

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babsywabs by babsywabs | Notre Dame, IN
Apr 19, 2013

I'm with you, lesh4537! I do not use any form of social media, either, so if you are "old fashioned", so am I. I value my privacy much more than I desire to know every detail of the lives of people I barely know. My husband is on Facebook, mainly as a means to keep in touch with family, but sometimes he tells me things that people have posted, and I just have to shake my head. I don't think most people realize that once something is posted online, it is out there FOREVER. Imagine if people spent as much time actually TALKING to one another as they spend online! Imagine if people actually participated in social events, instead of typing their day's activities into social media! Imagine if people had REAL "friends", not just Facebook "friends"...

lesh4537 by lesh4537 | CLEVELAND, OH
Apr 04, 2013

I do not use social media (facebook, pintrest, etc). Call me old fashion. But really I do not every person in the world reading my life nor do I need to know every bit about other people. Another thing, if I have not talked to you in several years what makes you think I want to talk to you now. I know many people that search out people then only see what they are posting on their pages. If you really want to be friends then pick up the phone and call. We are in a society today that soon will not use verbal cues anymore to communicate it will all be technological. It is sad but that is the way we are moving. What would happen if the world were to cease without social media. Will people survive?

momsgonecrazy by momsgonecrazy | santa clara, CA
Mar 09, 2013

I wrote a blog about this subject a few months back. I think the front most of us put up on facebook, or in the virtual world, or even in real life, often causes unrealistic expectations of ourselves as parents and people. If we were more real, we would all be able to relate to one another instead of feeling alienated. It would be much easier to laugh at ourselves and the crazy/silly/stupid things we do.

mlanzillo by mlanzillo | RENSSELAER, NY
Mar 05, 2013

I personally agree with you. For instance my friend had a Birthday party this past weekend and there was a small disagreement which happens between friends from time to time, it's only natural. We resolved our differences and moved on. We talked the next day as if nothing happened which is how it should be but later on that night there was a "poem" blasted on her FB page regarding drama and how she wants it removed from her life. I also hate when people do things such as post sarcastic catty posts on their page just to make a "statement" and for a minute think that other people in this case it was myself, are not going to read into it. I didnt I was the bigger person. But I really relate to the turning friends into frienimes. Should she truly of cared about our friendship she would have not have posted that to draw attention to the situation after it was already resolved.