The great thing about social media is that it can keep you connected with friends and relatives you don’t get to see that often. The not-so-great part is that you can spend a lot of time reading posts that don’t have a positive impact. In fact, they may even frustrate and depress you.
We’ve noticed several types of posters who don’t exactly brighten our day. Maybe you’ve met some of them, too.
There’s Debbie Drama, who manages to inflate everyday events into life-or-death matters. Two or three of her posts can suck up every ounce of empathy you have to offer.
Ursula Unspoken is Debbie’s cousin, but she takes a different approach. She’ll ask for your prayers for something she can’t tell you about, so you’ll have sympathy for her but never know why.
Becky Brag has the most amazing kids who do the most amazing things, but we suspect she isn’t always telling us the whole story.
Ophelia Oversharer, Becky’s little sister, doesn’t believe there’s such a thing as TMI. Her poor family will never have any privacy, and we’ll learn more about them than we every hoped to know.
Sandy Selfie thinks nobody can have enough photos of her. We’re not sure what she’s up to when she’s not posting, or why she wants us to have all those pictures.
Vickie Vent takes to social media for three reasons: to complain, to complain, and to complain. Uh oh, better watch out — the drive-through lady forgot to put her fries in the bag again!
Beth Biblespouter can spiritualize any subject, adding what she sees as relevant Scripture to every single post she encounters, including Vickie’s forgotten fries.
Fay Forwarder has to hit the Share button on everything she sees. And her cousin Gertie Gullible believes whatever anyone posts and will insist it’s true even when confronted by evidence to the contrary.
And finally, there’s Irma Incompetent, who keeps typing Google searches into Facebook.
Want to get more enjoyment out of your time with others? Spend more of it in person, and less of it with these folks on social media! And if you recognize yourself here and want to break your bad habits, we know some great counselors who can help.
