In the recent years the use of social media has grown immensely and this has had a huge impact on the lives of so many people. For some it has become the main source of information, be it for business or for personal use. While for others it has become a place to push their ideologies and or agendas to a larger audience from all over the world. Sadly this has been both a good and a bad thing.
On the good side, social media allows people across the globe to connect with potentiality anyone from any part of the globe . Thank God we have social media. However, it’s the other side of social media that brings us to our topic today; the ‘Me First’ revolution.
In the old days quotes were something you read in a book, but now you don’t even need to go through a whole book to get quotes. Social media is awash with them and they are now influencing popular culture in a huge way. One of the ideas that seems prevalent in these quotes these days is the idea of self-promotion and self-preservation above all else. For example in quotes like:
“Love yourself first always”
“Put yourself first because no one else will”
“Choose your happiness over everything”
“Be more important to yourself than anyone else”
I would give more examples but some of the more apt ones contain vulgar language, but I’m sure that if you use social media you’ve already seen what I’m talking about.
From my understanding, the aim of these messages is to help people avoid being taken advantage of and to encourage them to look out for their own interests because “no one else will.”To be honest this seems to to be a well meaning message that makes so much sense. No one wants to be taken advantage of. I myself have been taken advantage of countless times and the truth is it hurts and in most cases it can eat you up on the inside.
In light of this l adopted the message into my life philosophy and began to make efforts to apply it to my daily life until one day I came across a jolting truth that l had overlooked in the haste to protect myself.
Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philipians 2: 3-4.(ESV)
2.Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
4.Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
These two verses go directly against everything the wise quotes stand for. Where the wise quotes are saying consider yourself equal or more important than the next person, the scriptures are saying be humble and consider everyone else to be more significant than yourself. Where they are saying put yourself first and look out for your own interests the scriptures are saying don’t only look to further your own interests but look out also for the interests of others.
At first glance looking out only for yourself seems like a good idea, until you realize that you only have two eyes and they can’t see behind your back. Looking out for each other on the other hand, makes sure that everyone has plenty eyes looking out not only to cover their back but also every other side too.
If we consider others tobe more significant than ourselves, everyone will become significant. If we look out for the interests of others, everyone will grow and prosper. If we live with this kind of mind set our society will see more success and happiness.
