Jasmine Nicole

Two truths and a lie. I’ve played this game many times in my life. It’s a game where you give 3 statements about yourself; two being the truth and one being a lie and people have to guess which is the lie.

I was just thinking about social media and how we use it as a society and I started to think of what people share and post as a big game of 2 truths and a lie.

People have various reasons for why they post what they post. Privacy, entertainment, to actually be social, political beliefs, business, etc.

From my experience, I see most people post the good stuff. Sometimes people share the bad, and by bad I mean the real struggles. The things in life that bring you to your knees. And yes some people do share that stuff, but generally, not very often. Social media seems to have become a place of entertainment and real, raw struggle is not entertaining.

And again, this isn’t the truth for every person. Some people truly allow social media to be a platform of truth for them.

To clarify, people are 1000% entitled to post whatever they want, however they want, but I wonder what social media would be like if we chose to be honest ALL the time on it.

Which parts of what you post are true and which is the lie? In keeping with the math of the game, I would guess that maybe 2/3 of what people post is the truth. That 2/3 is most likely all of the successes, the joy, and basically all of the good in their life.

Maybe 1/3 of what people post is shrouded in mistruth. Just a guess. 🤷🏾‍♀️

I’ll put the spotlight on myself. 2/3 of my social media is always about me as a mom, my educational journey, and maybe my love life mixed with the typical millennial problems.

The truth… I am living all off those things. But it sucks a lot of the time. Or sometimes all of the time. I’m drowning. I wear too many hats in life and I’m very overwhelmed. I’m lonely. I hate it here. I can’t get to a place where everything is together all at once. I’m exhausted in various different aspects. I won’t post that. At least, not for real. Maybe only in meme form with a laughing emoji.

The lie…I try to make everything seem great and it’s all amazing all of the time. My kid is smart and eats all of her veggies, my classes are just the right amount of stress, and I’m barely struggling to date successfully, and adulthood is hilariously hard but bearable.

I can only speak from my own experience, but every time I want to tell the truth I can only bring myself to force comedy into it so it seems okay. So no one knows how much it really hurts.

I also wonder, while I have almost 700 friends on Facebook or almost 300 on Instagram, who actually cares? And that’s not a pity thing, more of a mental note saying, “Get off of social media and go actually fix your problems. No one here can help you.”

I don’t know, maybe I’m not the only one who thinks that way or maybe I am. Maybe I am trying to escape my truth by lying and transforming my struggles into entertainment for social media because I do enjoy it and find comfort in it and I’m okay with admitting that.

So now, here’s two actual truths about me and 1 actual lie…guess which is the lie.

1. I have wanted to be a nurse since I was in kindergarten.

2. I have a degree in creative writing.

3. I won a short story writing contest in high school.