Tired of fitness selfies

I see somebody post on social media how he went running after a long time. Great for him. Why this is news worthy isn’t entirely clear to me. It was clear to others. It got him hundreds of likes. Maybe he comes from a very large family and they value his health.

So many people are sharing what they are doing in the gym – posing for selfies and sometimes working out – and so very few people are spreading ideas, talking about the books they are reading, putting out offers for help, sharing what is really going on in their lives. Some of the people I know who often pose with their fitness activities have some serious issues, but they will never talk about that on social media. Ok, maybe I have simply unrealistic expectations of social media. Some of them have some very interesting ideas and have achieved some remarkable things, but somehow those things are not social media stuff.

Without meaning to be harsh towards these people I ask myself why do they do it.

– it gets them likes, obviously. People react to this stuff and people rarely react to a post about a book or complicated idea. If you want likes, a picture in the gym is still a good strategy. Maybe people like this stuff because they wish they would have the motivation to work out or because by liking it they feel they are saying: I am like you, I also have the discipline to work out.

– every single media post ever made is a cry for love. Fitness selfies are no different. And as mentioned above it works, it’s one of the easiest ways to get likes. If I post this blog post on my Facebook profile, yes, it will also be a cry for love.

– it’s not a pleasant activity. I have this theory: the more you feel the need to post your current activity on social media the less you are present in that activity, the less you are enjoying it. In the happiest moments of my life the very laaaaaaaaaast thing I would have considered was to open up social media and post about it. I was too fully immersed in the activity, in the happiness, I had zero need to post it online. So when people post pictures of family outings online, especially in real time, meaning while the family outing is still ongoing, I think: what is missing? Why does that moment not make them happy enough? Why do they need to get likes as a sauce to the family outing to make it more digestible?

And then we like these things – me too sometimes – and we sort of applaud them for…

not being fully present. Not having enough in that moment. Not being fulfilled by the people they are physically with.

The happiest people I know are the least active on social media.

Especially the ones with a very clear purpose in life either don’t use social media or only use these platforms to spread ideas that promote health, happiness, justice, …

This is not going to be a popular blog post…

But if nobody returns fire, you are bombing the wrong targets…