Recently, I heard someone describe social media as windows. Each social media platform is a different window that allows people to look into your home, i.e. your life. When you have an account on every social media platform, your life must look like Swiss cheese - covered in holes through which people can peer. This got me thinking.
Imagine a planet with a big blue sky, full of bright sunlight. This beautiful world is your life. Now imagine, a social media alien pokes a hole in your sky, the size of the sun. Now you have a black dot up in your sky. This dot lets the universe look into the world of your life and it lets you send out signals to other planets. Then another hole appears (because the Facebook Empire just invented a new app, of course). Then another, and another. How long does it take before your beautiful blue sky is covered in black pot-holes? How quickly would you close up these holes?
Why would you allow any hole to exist at all? What’s the benefit? You allow these holes to open because you love how beautiful your planet is and you want to share it with the whole universe. You like learning about other beautiful planets. You aim to woo other planets with your pretty signals in hopes those planets will move closer to you so you can form a friendly little solar-system together. Maybe, now that the whole galaxy can peer into your life, you’re worried your planet is not beautiful enough. You poke more holes in your sky to show off more and more of your pretty home, spreading your signals across the blackness of space, hoping that if planets on the other side of the universe hear all these great things about your planet they’ll sing your praises and you’ll feel more confident that your home really is as beautiful as you say it is. Then surely, you’ll be able to lay on the grass and gaze up with some peace of mind at whatever specks of blue remain in your sky.
What if there’s another way? What if you could enjoy other planets and feel happy and keep your sky big and blue? What if redirected your energy away from sending signals and focused on moving yourself physically closer to other planets? You could move into such tight proximity with other planets that you orbit each other and see one another up close, like colorful moons, in your skies. Then, instead of just telling each other through projected words and pictures about your pretty places, you could admire each other with your own eyes and delight in spinning through space together. In your tightly woven solar-system you could lay on your back and look up at your sky and watch the sunrise over another planet’s mountain peaks or stare mesmerized by the swirling clouds over another planet’s oceans. The magical events on other planets would suddenly become part of your own world; a feature in your landscape, a wonderful sight to see when admiring your view. Inviting these other planets to move so close to your atmosphere would enhance your world’s beauty beyond measure, completely eliminating those prior concerns or lack of confidence you once held. Would that not be so much more rewarding than hovering in space alone, with a black pot-holed sky, endlessly sending and receiving invisible signals that promise the beauty of some far away place?
To consider before poking another hole in your sky:
1) How much of your blue sky are you willing to sacrifice?
2) Are you ready to stop building a following and start building a solar system?