Do me a favor. Search #firstworldproblems on Twitter. I don’t know about you, but when I took the time to read them, I found myself wincing.

Just for fun, let’s take my morning and put it into #firstworldproblems tweets.

Woke up too early because I left my phone on loud and my friend’s text woke me up #firstworldprobs. Took too long in the shower because the water temperature was too perfect #firstworldprobs. When your mascara isn’t waterproof and it’s raining outside #firstworldprobs. Didn’t have enough waffle mix this morning so I had to have eggs instead #firstworldprobs. Why is nobody liking my Instagram picture? I took 10 minutes picking the right filter. #firstworldprobs.

First world problem tweets can sometimes be funny, I admit. But in all honesty, why do we take the time to tweet our frustrations? Why do we feel the need to complain about not being able to get our coffee in the morning, or wish we had more money to spend on material things?

Sure, voicing our problems gets them off our chests, but it doesn’t solve anything besides sharing with others that you’re mad.

Since the start of social media, it seems as though any idea that comes into our heads is shared with our followers. Twitter defines itself as “a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting.” That doesn’t include our daily gripes.

Now, let’s put my morning in a Facebook post.

Today is a beautiful day! Who else loves rain in the morning? I do, especially when there’s thunder and lightning. A morning storm, a long, hot shower and fresh eggs over easy equals the perfect morning. Here’s a picture of my homemade breakfast made all by myself. Doesn’t it look scrumptious? It’s only my second time making eggs on my own so be nice; feeling happy.

The following is from Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg’s personal blog in 2006.

“When I made Facebook two years ago, my goal was to help people understand what was going on in their world a little better,” he said. “I wanted to create an environment where people could share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over whom they shared that information with.”

In terms of following the initial mission statement, when people share their life accomplishments on Facebook, they are sharing “whatever information they want.”

But recently, I think people, myself included, share the good things happening in their lives on Facebook instead of Twitter in order to get more likes; to feel popular online and to get attention.

In my eyes, we are more inclined to post negative aspects of our lives on Twitter because if you don’t read them when they are posted in real time, most of your followers are unlikely to go back and read them. Once they’re posted, they’re buried and forgotten.

This is different from Facebook because the system brings the most popular updates to the top of your news feed. If you post about an accomplishment or a success, it will probably get more likes, which will bring it to the top of people’s pages, making it more visible and therefore, more popular.

Even with constant connections to social media, I think we need to filter what we choose to share on these websites because in the end, it won’t solve your #firstworldproblems, and people don’t really need to know about them.

Caroline Rode can be reached at rode8318@stthomas.edu.