Sharing Your Blessings?

Blessings from on high.

(Courtesy of www.bubblews.com)

I was going through an online thread that was discussing the pictures you see over social media of how many bags one person has purchased, or the latest car or cellular phone they just bought, when a newcomer barged in the thread, obviously miffed at the tone of the discussion, and started "shouting" (which is what writing in capital letters is equivalent to in online communication).

"Bakit? Is it wrong to be happy that my husband bought me a new bag that costs more than a hundred thousand pesos?!? I am just SHARING MY BLESSINGS! Inggit much kayo dito?!? I see NOTHING WRONG with SHARING your blessings with the WORLD!!! God gave us these BLESSINGS and it would be GREEDY of us to hide it from the world!!!"

I'm not sure how to respond to this.

I suppose the first question I have is, was it necessary to parade the price tag of your bag? I imagine that if I went out, to the mall or wherever, and I wore brand new clothes with the price tags still on them, people would be staring at me, not because they would be wowed by the amounts indicated - I don't prioritize spending hard-earned money on clothes, ever - but probably because you're supposed to snip these off before you wear them. (And I would add, more importantly, to wash them before wearing them, which would make the tag unsightly.)

Being happy/grateful for gifts from your spouse is an expected response. I'm just confused how posting it over Instagram is part of being grateful, or how that shows that you "share your blessings."

To my mind, if you really wanted to "share" these wonderful gifts and blessings, you would have (a) given the bag/s to one of the "unfortunate" ones or (b) sold the bag/s and given the cash equivalent to the same "unlucky" ones, or to charity.

The example this woman gave reminds me of a scene from Will and Grace, when Karen and Jack ordered too much food on Christmas Eve in their hotel suite, and Karen thinks out aloud.

Karen: "Jack, we have all this food we haven't touched...when there are people who can't even eat."
Jack: "My God, Karen, you're right...but what can we do?"
Karen: "I know! Let's take a picture of us eating all this food...and show it to them!"
Jack: "Karen, you are like a female Jesus!"

I might be out of touch with how things work over social media, but it seems to me that posting pictures of your material possessions still falls under the "Bragging" column. Whenever I am in doubt, I try to imagine online actions in terms of how they would be translated before Facebook and Twitter.

In my day, people would usually have to hold a party, come down (often on a spiral staircase) wearing their Paris-bought clothes or jewelry, then "casually" show it off to declarations of oohs from the invitees.

Did that sound as silly now as I thought it did, even back then?