Stolen Moments

Remember the days when you would go over someone’s house and flip through their photo album to see pictures of their prom, graduation, first day of college, their big wedding day, and their baby’s arrival? Remember removing the picture from the album to look on the back of the actual photo, to discover the exact month and year the photo was developed? Stories were shared in homes, a place where you would go sit, eat, and chat and get to know each other. Stories would be swapped, telling the other what’s the story behind this picture and that picture. Stories were sacred and remained with the parties that were present to hear them. Well that’s a thing of the past.

With social media, I think I have practically seen it all. I have seen the day a baby was born, baby fully exposed. I have seen wedding pictures and honeymoon pictures before the newlyweds came back from their honeymoon and haven’t gotten around to developing pictures. I have seen sonograms. I have seen the details of bachelor/bachelorette/bridal parties. There is no need for me to ask, “How did he propose?” because chances are… I have already seen the video on Facebook.

These “stories”, these parts of “our lives” that make life interesting are no longer a story, but a post. I'm talking about those precious moments in our lives that were once shared with your closest “friends” are now shared with 300 of your closet “friends” on social media. Human contact seems to be a thing of the past because we are too busy looking down typing and texting?

Many people are posting everything and anything that comes to mind. There are no limitations. No standards on social media. I’m free to do what I will. Am I? Are we? Have we gone too far? Should some things remain special, reserved for the ears to hear and not for the eyes to see? Have we gone too far with social media?  Or is privacy old fashion and out of date?