The Edit Button and Our Quest for Perfection

 

A few weeks ago --
Me (to Manong): Did you know that Messenger has now an Edit feature? 😍
Manong: That was the reason why Musk bought Twitter... 😅

How many times have you used the Edit feature? Me, I would say countless times, especially for someone who likes to revisit, reread and review whatever I wrote online. This is one feature I found lacking in Messenger before, and had me frustrated often in the past when I could not edit wrong spellings or missed words. Or even grammatically incorrect statements. But lo, and behold, they have finally added it! When? I don't know. I only noticed it recently.

But why edit already posted statuses and comments?

One could argue, to make it perfect. But why make it perfect? (I know, grammar police 😄.) Why couldn't we let it be? Why obsess over making things right?

Every time I hit that Edit, questions like these come to mind. It's as if I can't stand the thought that I can be wrong, and that people will witness it. They will have an evidence! Our culture is so obsessed with the "perfect you" version. It's as if, "Look world! I'm always with the right clothes, with the right words, right actions!". It's as if one can't make mistakes.

Hitting 40s, I've slowly come to terms with my imperfections. I've now come to accept that I'll never do everything right. I'll always do something wrong, or say something incorrect, and sometimes say things inappropriately. I've slowly let go of always being perfect. And why? It makes me free. As we say in Filipino, kebs!

Coming to terms with my imperfections has given me confidence. Enough obsessing about what others will think or how they will view me. So what? What's important is that I know the people who love me accepts me for who I am. They might not stop telling me what I'm doing wrong, but at least they love me for the good and the bad.

With this edit feature, sometimes we are not careful with what we say. If the Edit feature would be removed, would we take time to pause? To rethink how we are supposed to express something so strong of an emotion? I used to do this in Facebook - I post something that I later regret then I hide or delete that post. Nowadays whenever I feel emotional over something, I stay clear from any social media 😆

In any case, there should always be a check and balance. Don't rush too much, but also don't care too much about what people think and say. Accepting things that have happened, and moving on, hopefully improving and getting better makes one have a positive outlook in life.