Double?

October 31st, 2015| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

A strange story hit the news the other day.

Here she was: a 38-year-old successful physician (a dermatologist), blonde, photogenic, married to another doctor (also a dermatologist), mother of three. Well-loved, well-traveled. Enough to induce envy in anyone.

Her online presence (on Facebook) shows her celebrating a birthday in the Turks and Caicos. Another photo has her dressed formally with her husband, to which someone commented: “Wow! What a good-looking couple!” There are pictures of her on vacation in Hawaii, partying in New Orleans, skiing in Whistler, enjoying life with her three adorable kids (youngest just a year old) in a million-dollar home in Long Island, sailing, lounging, relaxing—living life to the fullest.

But apparently there was more going on. She was found dead in a strange apartment building last week, likely caused by a drug overdose.

Said one who knew her:

This was so out of character—I know this was atypical.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

80,000,000 photos posted on Instagram each day. 1,490,000,000 active users on Facebook each month. 316,000,000 active accounts on Twitter; 230,000,000 on Tumblr. Etc.

And there is no question that there is often a gap between the person we are and the persona we present to the online world. Increasingly, studies have shown many living a double life.

Much of this, social scientists say, results from the “social comparison theory”—the measurement of our worth in light of others’ successes. “Seeing Everyone Else’s Highlight Reels: How Facebook Usage is Linked to Depressive Symptoms” was a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

And so, with more and more people becoming more and more comfortable with the idea that what you post online isn’t the real you, someone’s coined the term “Finstagram”—“fake Instagram” (or “finsta”)—your second account, which, ironically is the more truthful of the two. The other one, your supposedly “real” Instagram, is your “rinsta.”

Confessed one 19-year-old in Elle magazine:

My rinsta is the filtered me. It’s where I look good in my pictures, I’m happy, and I’m having fun.”

And, of course, there’s always Photoshop to retouch those “real” photos.

Said another teen:

You can literally airbrush your pictures online for free. I know; I’ve done this. You upload your picture and you can take out all your little pimples and stuff to make it look like your skin is perfect, your hair is perfect.”

The Bible had something to say about a double life—Jesus called it hypocrisy.

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them;
otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do ….
Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. …
Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites;
for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners
so that they may be seen by men.
Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. …
Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
…
Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do,
for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting.
Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. …
Your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:1–2, 4–6, 16, 18

No more double lives. We live for the Father!