Social media burn out

First off, happy 100th post!! Yay, I’m excited.

But I owe you all an explanation. It’s been quiet around here. And it’s not that I don’t have things to write about, I do. I am a bit short on time, a place to photograph, but quite honestly none of those are the real problem.

I’m just burnt out on social media. Social media is great in many ways, but horrible in others. Recently it just made me so angry that I completely cut off almost all postings. And I’ll tell you why.

Body snark and the resulting war.

Let’s start with the definition of body snark. From Urban Dictionary

to rudely talk about a persons body or body parts, whether in private or directly at the person

This definition is a bit gray to me. Rudely talk about a person’s body. What about talking about my own body? Can I rudely talk about myself? To myself? Can you bodysnark yourself?

Personally, I do not think so. I think personal honesty, privately or even publicly, is important. And it’s not snark. It’s not bodysnarking myself to say my boobs feel huge. It’s not bodysnarking myself to say I want to loose some weight. And it really is not bodysnarking to others to talk candidly about my own body!!
But I have seen articles posted and bloggers/people immediately take offense. The author is talking about their own body, being honest with how they feel. But negative words make for snark right? Not if the author is talking about themselves! Written expression has a target audience and we are not always in that target audience. If someone is writing about how they hate their large breasts they are not snarking themselves! They are being honest! They are not being negative about every woman with big breasts by talking about themselves! They are expressing their own thoughts about their own body, not bodysnarking.

Just like there is a need for body positivity, there is also a need for body negativity, to your own body. It’s body honesty! Why would you not want to be honest with yourself? Honesty with yourself is about growing, changing, maturing; even if it takes some negative to get you there. It is growth toward better, which can take both good and bad. Why push aside the negative thoughts for only positive if it will limit your growth? Harnessing the positive and the negative to grow into a better person, for you, is why body honesty is important. And it’s not just about your physical body, it’s about you in your entirety.

I’m all for body positivity, but I would love to see more body honesty. There has been such a huge push in the body positive movement that sometimes it can feel false, fake, or pushy. Body honesty can be positive or negative, and it’s completely personal for individual acceptance.

Social media has a tendency to explode things, and it can be overwhelming. I can hope that the idea of body honesty can explode, because honesty is the first step to acceptance. And if honesty says you’d like to change a bit of you, then do it. If honesty says you love something about you, than work it. Body honesty will lead to body acceptance, and accepting yourself is much more important that just being body positive.

-Writing this has been slightly therapeutic. You know why? Body honesty and writing this has pushed me to admit to myself that I am not happy with parts of my body. The fact that I am currently carrying extra weight around my stomach makes me reluctant to take photos for the blog. How I currently feel about my body has me not wanting that body in photo on the internet for all to see. And that’s ok! It’s up to me to decide what to about it, to honestly come to accept my body.

Anyway, I hope to be back and posting more often. I don’t know how much I’ll be on social media, but you may see me here or there. I want to focus on quality posts instead of building a social media presence. I’d like to keep my readers now happy before trying to find new ones. Maybe while I’m at it I’ll tell at wordpress and fix some of the annoying spam comments. See you all soon!

• Posted in: Are you sure you want to read this? ♦ Random