The OMG Effect by Chris Lee

Author:Chris Lee [Lee, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473583528
Publisher: Random House

So the Devil is saying to Jesus to throw himself down from a high place because the angels will hold him, and that he will, before the eyes of all, glide safely to the ground and not be hurt. This would make everyone plainly see that he was the Messiah and believe it wholeheartedly.

The temptation here is to believe you are what others say you are. Existing on any one of the many social media platforms makes it almost impossible to avoid the gaze of others, and our own gazing back at them and their varied and sometimes enviably presented lives. As recently as fifteen years ago, the only people we had to compete with were our neighbours, colleagues or our friends from school. Now we have to deal with comparing ourselves, unconsciously or otherwise, to millions of people all over the world. These comparisons are unhelpful and sometimes unhealthy, but we can’t help but make them.

Almost all of us have online profiles – or personas if you like – and we’re each able to carefully curate an idea of ourselves that often may not be a true or accurate representation of what is actually going on inside our heart and mind. It’s as if we’ve become our own publicist or manager, and we want to get the best image of ourselves out there so that we can feel accepted and affirmed by as many people as we can. We may care far too much about what others think about us, and so we take their judgements and perceptions of us as feedback to inform us of who we are. Part of the problem is denial – the failure to know our real self, which is prone to anxiety, insecurity and anger on a deeper and more substantial level.

As I mentioned, I’m on Instagram – in fact, that is why I was approached to write this book – and I really enjoy uploading pictures and video clips and sharing my experiences with others and seeing their reactions to my posts. Admittedly, it is a thrill to see so many likes and comments, and I have a relatively large following.

Being a priest, I get a great many direct messages asking me for advice or making prayer requests. I often feel very inadequate when I receive a cry for help from somebody who is really struggling, as there are just too many to be able to answer every single one. I occasionally click on a person’s profile to see who is asking for my help. When I follow their link, what I see is a very different story to the one they have just told me. I often see a happy guy or girl, on a beach or in a restaurant; a smiling face in a group of people having fun; or a funny video or a silly meme. But as their messages to me show, this is only one of their faces, and we each have many in our gallery. If

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