Source: Uploaded by user via Jesse on Pinterest

I just caught myself taking myself way too seriously.

We do that. We like to be right. We like to have our egos nicely coddled.

It’s hasn’t been a particularly ego-snuggling kind of day. And then, someone had the audacity to disagree with me on the internet! Sometimes, I hate this whole internet thing—especially Facebook. For all the time I spend on Facebook doing social media work, many days it makes me feel sort of surly and elitist.

 Really? You’ve decided to re-post an opinion from Fox News that you got third hand and you don’t understand what half of it means…oooh, you must feel so political! Oh, and I loved the 40 Rumi quote pictures you posted. In a row. You must be sooo happy. Oh and by the way, no matter how many pictures of exercise you pin to Pinterest, they don’t do a damn thing if you are still sitting in front of your computer.

And don’t get me started about the blog comments. I don’t know which is worse: the total non-sequitur rants that people post in one big blog of text or the ALL CAPS EXTRAVAGANZAS (because, you know, things are much more convincing in ALL CAPS).

I could go on, but I’m already starting to feel like a jerk. But we do this sometimes, right? We have this connected disconnect at times in regard to the internet. It’s a powerful tool; it can help us connect, or it can be destructive. 

99 percent of my interactions on the internet (with people I know offline as well as those I don’t) have been positive. It’s just that one percent that gets us all bent out of shape and taking ourselves so seriously. What? You don’t agree with me? Well, you must have misunderstood. Let me correct you. You still don’t agree? But. But. But. I’m Right!

Sigh.

As wise man once told me (and will probably have to remind me again from time to time):

“Wow, responding to that internet argument made my life so much better.” ~ Said no one, ever.

So what does any of this have to do with either goats or Longchenpa?

At the end of the day, all of these social media tools can make us feel surly and elitist if we let them, or we can use them to connect with our friends and feel encouraged. We can spend time fighting ego battles that don’t serve any mindful purpose at all. Or we can remember what Longchenpa said:

“Since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.”

And we can use the internet to serve this higher purpose of letting go of egoic attachments and laugh. Get down off your high horse. Put away the sword of internet justice for a few minutes. Give in to the goats:

Like elephant journal on Facebook.