Is it worth it? The case against posting pictures with friends online.

I yet remember the sting I felt six years ago. I was mindlessly scrolling Facebook one Saturday afternoon when I came to a moving-picture show of familiar faces. Several of my friends from church had carpooled two hours away to run across another friend who had recently moved…and this group (that included some of my closest friends at the time) hadn't invited me. Information technology felt purposeful that I wasn't included. To say I was crushed at the fourth dimension seems to exist a chip overdramatic, just that is exactly what I felt.

Fast forward a few years when I got together with a couple friends for dinner and one of those friends posted a sweet picture of us the side by side twenty-four hour period. Little did I know that some other friend would feel exactly the aforementioned manner that I felt those years agone. Excluded. Isolated. Uninvited.

I have been on both sides of the "posting pictures of friends on social media" issue. I love my friends. I beloved getting together with my friends. I love posting these pictures considering my friends are a part of who I am as a person- they have spoken life and dear into me in a season filled with babies, then toddlers, preschoolers, and now school-aged kiddos. Why wouldn't I want to show the globe how great my friends are?!?!

Only I don't. Not anymore. I have learned that posting pictures of my friends and me online isn't worth the heartache and hurt it could potentially cause someone else. Someone, like me all those years ago, who wasn't invited.

I don't think this is a maturity upshot or an event needing "thicker skin". This is a human issue. Beingness excluded, whether you lot are Vii or Seventy, hurts. And is information technology worth it to hurt a friend in club to prove our online earth how dandy our lives are? I don't think and then. I would venture to guess that every single adult female (or man) has felt the sting of being excluded. We wouldn't walk upward to someone and tell them all virtually the event we went to, knowing they weren't invited, so why would we post pictures that substantially do the same thing?

As women (and individuals), we will be healthier and less prone to feeling hurt/wounded when nosotros are confident in ourselves. Ultimately for me, this means finding my identity in the Lord and non my married man, children, friends, chore, or contribution to society. When I focus on my relationship with Him, I am less prone to feeling hurt or jealous and more eager to give grace and exist happy for others. But life is a journey and we are not all at a confident identify in our lives. Showing sensitivity for those who are more vulnerable is truly an human activity of kindness.

I am the blazon of person that is most comfortable one-on-one or in a minor group of 3 or 4 (at the max). I feel lost in a bigger grouping and can't connect beyond surface-level topics. In guild to accept meaningful friendships, this ordinarily means that I seek out fourth dimension for individual conversations. If I am going to break abroad from being with my family, it will normally be to get together with a friend 1-on-one. And this inevitably means that non everyone is invited. This is a recipe for a deep and meaningful friendship, in my opinion, and something that doesn't need to be broadcasted to the globe…especially when this one-on-one time might exist hurtful to someone else.

Don't get me wrong…I even so post pictures of my family unit and volition postal service pictures of/with friends (and my friends' kids) if we are at an inclusive event (church, school, or community functions where everyone is invited). But if I accept dinner with a friend or nosotros take a trip with another family unit, I won't mail information technology. It isn't worth pain other friends in the process.

PS- I think this is an ESPECIALLY of import lesson we need to larn in the church building. The online world is catchy territory when it comes to our faith as nada is black and white…but I think that as Christians nosotros must exist ultra vigilant to ensure that the image we are working then difficult to create online isn't pain others in the procedure. 1 Corinthians 9 talks virtually not beingness a stumbling block to someone else and I remember the social media world is definitely i tactic the Enemy uses!

PPS- I use Facebook equally my online photo album. ALL my special pictures from the years are on there. If I want to include a photo in an album so that I will have it down the road but don't want to hurt someone in the process, I just ready the privacy settings on either the picture or the album to "just me" or to the select individuals  I want to include. No one else will be able to see the photos this way.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Please share in the comments!

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