October 21st 2015, also known as Back To The Future Day..
This is especially true if you are a child of the eighties, like myself.
Back To The Future 2 originally came out in 1989…. Yep, sorry to make anyone feel old, ha, it’s true….
When it first came out at the cinema, it was a HUGE deal…
I remember queuing (yep, a huge queue, just to get a ticket) outside the Cecil cinema in town for a day time showing, just hoping to get in!
In the highly anticipated sequel, Marty McFly, played by Michael J Fox, travels forward through time to today’s date……
In the movie we got some vivid representations of what the future( today) may hold, including flying cars & everyone’s fav……the hoverboard!
Don’t know about you, but I feel a bit cheated, I wish I could say I jumped in my flying car to work this morning!
Although the whole ‘3D’ cinema experience in the movie is pretty much bang on…..
However, who would have thought that back to the future day in good old ’89, the actual future would include the storm that is social media?
>Facebook
>Twitter
>Instagram
>Snapchat
Etc
Etc
Etc
Or that we would have become so overly reliant & dependent on updating & checking these every single day of our lives?
Or that the answer to everything & anything would be found by simply tapping a few words into Google?
What a world we live in…..just take a moment to consider what you would do without this technology at your fingertips? What would you do without ANY social media?
The downside to this world is that it can leave you feeling nothing but confused & sometimes disheartened…
When it comes to social media, the comparison of everything & everyone is more evident than ever in 2015….
If we choose to, we can see, on a pretty much daily basis:
>Photos (whether it’s a new car, a new job, a new body, holiday snap shots, wedding pics, photos of cute babies or pets)
>Status updates (stating they have the ‘best partner/kids/wife/husband in the world’, or how they have ‘killed the gym’ or lost x amount of weight, or landed their ideal job).
‘Check ins’ at fancy places (restaurants, bars, airports, concerts, etc etc).
We all like to share our happiness, our success, our wins, and our experiences…..
However, for some, comparison can lead to misery….
Constantly comparing your life to that of others, especially via social media is a sure fire way to drive yourself down….
The thing is with social media, is that it’s very often the highlight reel of life, the greatest hits, the ‘best of’…I get it, it should be, it should be positive, and all of the above memories should be shared…just take it with a tall glass of perspective….
…….We ALL have struggles, we ALL stress, we ALL have arguments, we ALL face fears, we ALL face doubt & fear, and we ALL need help with at least area of our life…
The only person you should ever compare yourself to is yourself…
Celebrate the success of your friends, and those around you, but don’t let it make you question yourself in negative way…
Like I said, we ALL have struggles, we just don’t always see those in between the highlight reel….
That’s all for today, until the next time, I’m going to go & charge my flux capacitor & get this baby up to 88 mph………if you reading this on back to the future day, I hope you are watching the movie?!
Tristan ‘Wait a minute Doc……Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a DeLorean?’ Buttle.
* this was originally posted on 21/10/15 & was revised on 10/09/17.