Exit Stage Left

Imagine that you just purchased a beautiful new outfit for an evening out with your love, your friends, family, and so on.  You look good, smell good, and you are in a wonderful mood.  You post a photo of you in your new outfit to your social media page, which happens to be red, your favorite color, perhaps adding a line about how you love your new outfit.  You go about your evening and have a wonderful time.

When you check your phone later, you see that many people hearted your post and said how nice you looked, but then you come across a comment that reads, “The outfit would have looked better in yellow.”  You see another one that reads, “I guess.  Not my taste though.”  As a full- grown adult, you understand that we all do not have to agree and that we have different tastes when it comes to food, style, and so forth, but at the same time you wonder, were those comments even necessary?  Those comments need to exit stage left.

I recently saw a post on Instagram about how annoying it is when people cannot keep their bitterness to themselves when you post something positive.  In this post, a woman posted about how she only wants to date a guy that brings peace to her life, and is contributing to the peace that she already has.  She went on to say how you can do bad by yourself, which is something that my grandmother use to say, and I agree 1,000%, and how it is pointless to date if you are not adding to the betterment of her life.  Needless to say, the Bitter Bettys and Negative Nancys entered the comment section.  I saw comments saying things such as:

“Well, how are you adding to his peace?”

“Only women that are actually adding to his peace deserve peace.” 

“What are you doing for him?”

“What do you bring to the table?”

Insert sigh here.  Why even bring your bitter self to the post at all?  The poster simply expressed how she likes when a guy brings peace to her and her life.  Someone simply expressing things that they like on their social media page is not an invitation for you to dump all of your bitterness.  Now of course one could argue that it is a public platform and once you put something out there, you have to be open to all comments, even those you do not agree with, and to an extent, yes, you are right.  However, at the same time, the block and delete button are there for a reason and why would anyone want all of that negativity on their page?  If you do not agree, simply scroll on. 

My first thoughts as I read some of those comments were who hurt you?  Did you not heal from a past situation, and this post somehow triggered you?  Some of the comments made it abundantly clear that the commenters had a lot to heal from, so perhaps they need to get off of social media and sit this one out.  Some of the comments were downright angry.   

I see things on social media that I may not like or agree with but guess what?  I simply scroll and continue to enjoy my day.  I do not stop to inject any hate or bitterness onto their post. Ultimately, we do not have to agree with everything that we see on social media or in life in general.  However, before responding, ask yourself is it even necessary.  If not, exit stage left, and go about your day.