#firstworldproblems

A hashtag is a way for bloggers and (mostly) twitter users to link their posts. If you want to know what the twitterverse thinks about cheese, all you have to do is search the hashtag #cheese, and you’ll know what the internet has to say.


This morning I was buckling my child into her car seat and grumbling to myself. To take my kids anywhere, I have to stuff them into car seats and strap them down. When it’s cold, I have to loosen the straps to accommodate their increased size, or rather the addition of a puffy coat, which is necessary to keep them warm. I was thinking about how it was such a pain to shove uncooperative little arms first into coats and then safely into car seat straps. I sighed as I fastened the belt, and thought, “#firstworldproblems.”


#firstworldproblems is a hashtag that is used when a person wants to complain, but is fully aware that their complaint is ridiculous and chooses to complain anyway. Usually the ridiculousness comes from the fact that they have everything that anyone could possibly want but there’s one little thing that’s slightly annoying them at the moment but they’ll probably get over it in a minute. And since we live in a day and age that we are able to report every little whim to the internet, we do. For instance, here are a few tweets that I grabbed when I searched the hashtag on twitter: “My car finally heats up when I reach my destination. #firstworldproblems” “My diamond earrings keep scratching my iPhone screen. #firstworldproblems” and “#firstworldproblems There’s either not enough chips or not enough salsa.”


I was annoyed this morning that it was a bit inconvenient to keep my daughters warm against the cold, safe in a moving vehicle that we own, able to go quickly to visit my mother at her house that would take me an hour or so to walk to (not counting whatever holdups I would have trying to drag my daughters along with me while still keeping them moderately warm).


When you feel yourself tempted to tweet or post something that could easily have a hashtag like “#firstworldproblems” attached to it, maybe you should think twice. By sharing something like that with the world, you are saying, “I have no right to whine but I’m going to anyway, just because I can.”


Instead of focusing on yourself, you could think of those who aren’t as advantaged as yourself, realize how petty your momentary discontent is, and be thankful for what you have.


#blessed