The Happiness & Heartache of Social Media

I love all the 1st Day pictures and amazingly it hasn't been too hard for me this year, even with as fresh as the pain of losing Sebastian is for me. I fear next year though! Next September Sebastian would be entering kindergarten. I guess that will always be the blessing and curse of Facebook! There will be so many other hard moments in life too....birthdays, holidays, watching friends get to leave the hospital with their kids, firsts he'll never have like losing a tooth, going to Disneyland, joining a sports team, getting his license, or graduating.

I'm sure that others experience this too. It doesn't just pertain to those who lose a child. People who face various issues like couples who have a hard time conceiving, or single folks who want a partner, families who want to buy a house but can't for whatever reason, single parents, military members and their families, and on and on. Everyday we're faced with wanting to be happy for our friends and families and even strangers, but are also crushed by the joy of others just a little (or sometimes a lot). As humans we naturally want to share our excitement and good news or happy moments with others. Thanks to social media, we have a multitude of outlets to do so on a constant basis. There are lots of great things that come along with social media use, but there are a lot of not so great things too. I like to be connected with others through Facebook, but it will always be a double edged sword for me. I'm really glad I grew up in an era before social media. It's hard enough dealing with it as an adult, but I can't imagine how much harder childhood and the teen years would have been.