Insights
Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and to a certain extent, LinkedIn. Chances are that you are on at least two of these social networks. I am on 5. And I often feel the urge to share something about my life on them.
The arrival of these social networks has brought forth an unprecedented amount of sharing of our private lives with the public. Sometimes, the acronym TMI is not far from our thoughts as we browse through our newsfeed on Facebook. But is this really something new? Not necessarily. From time immemorial, human beings have always had the tendency of wanting to show off to the world. Fancy clothes, fancy house, fancy cars, parties: we LOVE attention. So much so that some people go to the extent of faking some aspects of their lives, as this Dutch student showed us with her experiment, to “distort reality”.
A few days ago, I had an Instagram moment. It was perfect. I had made something for a loved one, and I wanted to share it with the world. I easily could have done so gaining attention as a wonderful and caring, young lad. But then I stopped and thought for a minute, “is it really worthy for me to share this? Or, should I just enjoy this moment with the person it was intended for?" These are questions we should ask ourselves every time we get to that Instagram moment. When we realize that it’s better for us to enjoy the moment in privacy rather than worry about how many likes we can get, we get a level of tranquility and enjoyment that we would otherwise miss.
So, brothers and sisters, we should definitely try our best to preserve some moments (not all: some can be shared publicly to encourage others to do good) so that our intentions may be considered pure in the eyes of Allah (SWT). Furthermore, we may be unintentionally inviting the evil eye upon ourselves from people who we would not even think of, as Mufti Menk reminds us!
Finally, it’s not just about the repurposed Instagram moments and private moments. Saving our memories for us to reminisce about later is something that can serve a great purpose and help us rekindle fond memories and grow the love between close family and friends. Perhaps we should also consider bringing back Kodak Moments along with those repurposed Instagram ones.
photo credit: martinak15 via photopin cc
The arrival of these social networks has brought forth an unprecedented amount of sharing of our private lives with the public. Sometimes, the acronym TMI is not far from our thoughts as we browse through our newsfeed on Facebook. But is this really something new? Not necessarily. From time immemorial, human beings have always had the tendency of wanting to show off to the world. Fancy clothes, fancy house, fancy cars, parties: we LOVE attention. So much so that some people go to the extent of faking some aspects of their lives, as this Dutch student showed us with her experiment, to “distort reality”.
A few days ago, I had an Instagram moment. It was perfect. I had made something for a loved one, and I wanted to share it with the world. I easily could have done so gaining attention as a wonderful and caring, young lad. But then I stopped and thought for a minute, “is it really worthy for me to share this? Or, should I just enjoy this moment with the person it was intended for?" These are questions we should ask ourselves every time we get to that Instagram moment. When we realize that it’s better for us to enjoy the moment in privacy rather than worry about how many likes we can get, we get a level of tranquility and enjoyment that we would otherwise miss.
So, brothers and sisters, we should definitely try our best to preserve some moments (not all: some can be shared publicly to encourage others to do good) so that our intentions may be considered pure in the eyes of Allah (SWT). Furthermore, we may be unintentionally inviting the evil eye upon ourselves from people who we would not even think of, as Mufti Menk reminds us!
Finally, it’s not just about the repurposed Instagram moments and private moments. Saving our memories for us to reminisce about later is something that can serve a great purpose and help us rekindle fond memories and grow the love between close family and friends. Perhaps we should also consider bringing back Kodak Moments along with those repurposed Instagram ones.
photo credit: martinak15 via photopin cc
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