There is an old saying that you are what you eat, but these days, as I get more exercise going for walks during the day, I've come to realize, it isn't just what you eat, but what you do with it afterwards, how you metabolize it, that matters.

In the past, I've written about how the idea, "you are what you eat", applies to social media. What is your media diet? What are your friends saying on Facebook? Are you spending time reading people online that edify you or that tear you down?

It is the sort of question that those in the Christian tradition are likely to confront as they read Romans 12:2

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

These thoughts have come back to me recently as I've followed the discussion about a recent study about Facebook use. NPR ran the headline, Facebook Makes Us Sadder And Less Satisfied, Study Finds

One friend on Facebook shared this saying,

Somehow this doesn't surprise me... Too much screen time is too much screen time.

Yet as we dig a little deeper, we find some interesting details. The study, entitled Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults was of 82 people around Ann Arbor Michigan, with an average age of about 20. Sixty percent of the subjects were female.

I do question how well this sample reflect Facebook users in general, as well as some of the conjectures about the meaning of the study. The NPR article says,

The study authors did not get at the reasons Facebook made their test subjects feel glum. But Jonides suspects it may have to do with social comparison.

"When you're on a site like Facebook, you get lots of posts about what people are doing. That sets up social comparison — you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as those people you see on Facebook," he says.

Perhaps it isn't what your media diet is, "lots of posts about what people are doing", but what you do with it. I wrote about the what you eat part of this earlier in You Are What You Eat, the Online Version. What are the choices you make about who you follow on Social Media? Are they people that you can learn from? Do they represent a diverse set of views and experiences? Or are they mostly fellow classmates at University of Michigan going through very similar experiences as you are?

To broaden it, a bit more, are you in a Filter Bubble as Eli Pariser describes it?

Today, I read Facebook posts about a young muslim woman who has already led a very tough life. She lost her son to brain cancer. She is fighting chronic illness of her own, and her relationships with others have not always been as nurturing as one would hope.

Yesterday, she wrote,

Today I was thinking about my son Junaid ... I was thinking about the moments up to when he took his last breath. I was thinking about the state I was in when he took his last breath. Subhan Allah sometimes I felt like I want to loose my mind, but Allah would not allow it, to this day I sometimes don't want to feel at all (go numb) sometimes I cry and sometimes, I ask Allah why.

This woman is one of the strongest women I know. She is doing great things for her community and I have learned a great deal from her.

Today, I read the article School Clerk In Georgia Persuaded Gunman To Lay Down Weapons, which I found through a friend on Facebook.

Yes, I have a bias towards social media. It is what I do professionally. So, I did what any person with an interest in social media and a little investigative reporting would do and sought out Antoinette Tuff's Facebook page. The items over the past few months are a nice compliment to what she said in the interview. Back in June, she posted

God is opening so many doors in my life until I can't do anything but sit here and just cry and watch HIM move just had he has promise me for so many years. Thank u GOD for all that u r doing and the many millions u r going to continue to do. To God be the glory. Thx. Thx Thx God

Little did she know what those doors would lead to, two months later.

As I write this post, I take a few moments to look at Facebook statuses. My eldest daughter is teaching in Japan. I glance at pictures of some of the places she has been. I have yet to make it to Japan, and I could get stuck in social comparison and feel sad that she has gotten to travel to places that so far, I've only dreamt of visiting.

I see posts from high school classmates that I've known for over three decades. One posts regularly about time with his grandchildren. I don't have grandchildren yet and I'm pleased that my children are busy doing other great things besides starting families right now, but I can still rejoice in my friends joy about his extended family.

Another friend from high school has posted great pictures of her vacation on Cape Cod. In a few days, I will be heading out to Cape Cod, and I look forward to my time of relaxation after a very hard year, and I'm glad to see the joy my friends trip to Cape Cod has brought her.

It would be very interesting to see this study redone with a larger set of subjects. Does Facebook usage result in declined feelings of personal well being for all people? Does it depend on age? Economic status? Diversity of friends on Facebook? What the subjects post? What sort of emotional, psychological or life skills the subjects have developed? The amount of time on Facebook?

Does Facebook make us sad? Perhaps if we are college kids who are not seeking a diverse set of Facebook friends and have not yet learned to join with the struggles of friends that are struggling, and rejoice with friends that rejoice. But perhaps that is not so much about Facebook as it is about growing up and maturing.

For me, the new worlds I see, whether it is the painful life of a muslim woman, the wonderful travel of my daughter and other friends, or the simple pleasures of long time friends brings me great joy, and I hope my readers can find ways to re-approach social media so that they can get similar joys.