every once in a while, i stumble upon my past in the form of an old blog.
no, i don’t mean an old blog post, but literally old blog. before wordpress, before multiply, there was my livejournal.
just like reading an old diary, reading my old blog makes me smile, cringe, slap my head, all on repeat. but there was also something else i noticed.
i noticed how easy life was, not because i was still young & stupid (i mean, i still am these 2 things right now 🤪), but because there was no ‘like’ button.
i was blogging just to give an update to the people i care, who lived in different parts of the world already back then. i was blogging just to express myself, let out the anger, the happiness, the frustration, and the excitement, about anything and everything, without a care in the world on whether or not anyone would read it, let alone if anyone would ‘like’ it.
it makes me wonder about us, humans, in the present time, and especially the later generation that’s never felt life before ‘like’ buttons came out. will they ever know how easy life could be? how carefree everything is when you don’t have to try to be ‘liked’ all the time? how many times have they felt like they have tried everything to get more and more likes, do crazy selfies or spend extra money on things that will surely get them more likes, only to find that there will always be someone out there with even more likes? will we ever realize how the current social medias are basically dictating how we should behave/be in our lives? to be accepted, to be liked, to be validated. sure, some old traditions in some societies have always had these ‘mindsets’ as well, but this thing about the like buttons… they’re quite global and the impacts on people’s mental health have been quite scary.
at first, i envied my old self for not having these thoughts. but then i realized, i am still me. i can still think that way if i want to. i can decide to ignore the like buttons, the heart buttons, the thumbs-up buttons, or what have you.
i live my own life, and it’s not my problem if you don’t like me because i’m not pretty/trendy enough. i’m okay with living my own life the way i want to, without hurting others, and knowing for sure that the people around me like me for who i am, not what i post in my blog or whatever social media i have.
so i wanted to write this little post just to remind my future self (who knows what kind of self-deprecating buttons there will be out there in 10-20 years’ time?) to live life like the way it used to be, before the ‘like’ button existed. every time i post here, or wherever else, let it be just for myself, and not for anyone else. maybe, in time, i’ll learn to like myself–without having to press the ‘like’ button on my own blog post! 😉
Step Into The Silver Rain 
Well said! I joined Facebook early, before most of my friends. When they started to join, it was really fun. Then gradually it became more and more depressing. Blogging has been so much better for me. It’s about creativity and sharing, not competition.
hear, hear! out of all the social medias out there, blogging has always been the most ‘mind-friendly’ (in my opinion). glad to hear it’s also been better for you, hope you’ll keep on blogging! 😊
I hope you do, too! 🙂
yes, for sure! 😁
I restrained myself from liking this post. You make a very good point. I’m telling myself that I should see “likes” as read receipts, not approval
i did almost wrote a PS at the end of my post to warn people not to like it! 😆 and here i am liking your comment, because, like you, i also do that sometimes as read receipts, haha! i agree, they do work that way in most cases. thank you for reading the post, not liking it, and sharing your opinion about the topic! 😊
Very well expressed. I agree with you, it’s very much OK living your life the way you want to 🙂 and not being “dictated” to be accepted or validated. ❤
yep! sometimes i wish the like buttons would disappear from the present life! but i guess for now it’s enough for us to just pretend not to see it. 😁 after all, we only see what our eyes want to see, right?