As nothing that I say can really be taken as fact (unless you perceive it that way), let me offer my humble yet not humble opinion on the subject.

I am bored.

I have a need for self-assurance.

I like attention and compliments.  

I need to feel important to the world.  

I am scared.  Lonely.  Insecure.  

Now I will not digress into some bullshit about how this stuff doesn’t apply to me, or how I am so confident, or how I love myself the way I am.  

Because that would be a flat-out lie.  

I no longer feel the need to kid myself on this issue.  I am addicted to the life that I have created for myself on the Internet.  It makes me feel liked.  It reassures this side of myself that will always have a sense of self-loathing, only to bring me back to that place where I need to post one more photo to get more likes (but only one more… I promise this time).  I am so fucking bored.  I try to fill my time and energy with useless things.  As much as this consumerist culture will beg to differ, things really do not make any happier.  It is often better to experience than to have.  And to have a lot… that just makes the experience of life exponentially harder.  

Don’t get me wrong, I like things.  Nice, quality things.  But there is a difference between quality and quantity of the things you buy and own.  I can go spend $30 on two bottles of System Jo body shave gel, but it will probably last me a little less than a year and I don’t waste razors because I only need to shave once or twice a week, tops.  That’s an example of quality.  Quantity means spending $100 on new books at Barnes and Noble when you already have a bookshelf at home full of books that you haven’t even bothered to crack except when you were looking at the synopsis.  

I can’t say I’ve been perfect.  I’ve done both of those things.  And I’m totally guilty for being a material hoarder.  But the thing that’s really forced me to see this from a new perspective is the amount of moving I have done in the last 2 years.  

I just moved to Salt Lake from Boise about 4 months ago.  I remember the moving process very clearly, because I ended up selling/giving away about 1/3 of what I owned, if not more.  And I still had so much stuff to take with me.  And now I am in that process again because my apartment is being sold.  Having downsized already has helped, but it’s not enough.  

The excess (and I mean the true excess) must go.  

I’m not going to be an asshole and throw it all away.  There are plenty of people out there who would love the items I own.  It can be so easy to forget that there are others who don’t own anything outside of the clothes on their backs.  And being able to see that and really understand it is a good start towards freeing yourself of the “stuff syndrome.”  

How this relates to social media?  Get rid of the excess.  You don’t need 150 profile pictures, all of them cleavage shots with your lips pouting.  You don’t need 900 friends.  I can’t say I know 900 people, can you say the same?  You don’t need to post your every thought and action for the world to read and supposedly be in awe of your greatness.  Stop telling us the dirty details about your career, your boss, your friends, your family, your significant other, your kids, etc.  PLEASE STOP THE FACEBOOK FIGHTING.  It’s getting real old.  

Most important thing I think about this whole subject?  We often get so concerned with what we have (stuff, friends, social media, the like) that we forget to actually live.  Because those who really are living the dream don’t have the time or the need to broadcast it to the world.  They have what they need and they do what they want.  

That’s what we should all strive for.