THE SWAMP THAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media. Love it or hate it, it’s a part of our everyday life. And, if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think that I like it all that much! The pressure of it all is overwhelming some days. Especially for a ‘technically challenged’, get my hands dirty, splash paint around, creative type.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s is a great tool and it certainly has its place. How can it not when everyone is on one platform or another. It is where we all now go to keep up to date with everything in and outside of our sphere without having to actually interact on a personal level. I’ll put my hand up and admit that I’m guilty of this myself. I saw a post from a girlfriend celebrating the birth of her first grand daughter and I was so confused? “Huh? her daughter is only 12 isn’t she?”. NO Z, she is 22 and you haven’t seen her for 10 years!
Well, shit!
It’s also a place where bad behaviour is excused! It gives people an open forum to be completely awful to others without a second thought because they are not seeing a real person. They see a profile, not an actual flesh and blood, breathing, feeling person. It’s an ugly place of entitlement where we are now surrounded by people from every corner of the globe, all with very different opinions and emotions. Many, many, many of them, without filters, or the ability to check or temper themselves. And they don’t feel that they even have to. People just emote all over the place spewing whatever the hell they want. It is now a world of “I have an opinion, a feeling or a comment and I’m going to give it to you, whether I know you or not”. It is brain fart central.
So what was once a place to connect, to celebrate, to commiserate, has become a swamp. Want to create a social media shit storm….talk politics! (*whispers * there is a reason for the old adage that you shouldn’t discuss sex, religion or politics! Just sayin)
It’s a confronting world for a tender-hearted little empath!
It is unfortunate that it is now part of the modern creator’s world that if you want to be seen then you need to be out there and on all these different platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Pintrest…..did I miss any? God, I hope not because I am barely keeping up with those ones. Personal accounts…business accounts……I really want to scream into my pillow, Then, being ‘advised’ that the only way forward for makers is with Tik Tok and with IG reels.
There in is the dilemma for me. I resent the time that social media takes away from my ability to create!
Also, Did I mention that I’m technically challenged??
Add to that, I am also a type A, Choleric personality type. Things I don’t know or understand……BRAIN EXPLOSION! You need to explain it to me like I am 5. Show it to me so I understand it and heaven help all around if it doesn’t work like I’ve been shown!
So, trying to learn how these platforms work, how the interact with each other, what tags need to be used to increase your views, SEO optimization, remembering to go back and comment on comments, maximum engagement, what’s trending, Algorithms, content management…..Add to that the simple things in life like remembering to hit start, stop, or pause on the video, not having background music as it could be a violation, remembering to clean your fingers of paint, not breathing to heavy, zoom in, zoom out, slow down, speed up…….NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
all of it, ALL OF IT – makes me want to run head first into a brick wall. Seriously
All this takes bandwidth that my brain just doesn’t have.
I JUST WANT TO DOT
It poses the question. Way back in the day before social media….you know, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. How did creators get found? Could you imagine any of the great masters (NO, I am not offering comparisons here…merely posing a question) sitting there with their stone tablets trying to speed up their video, converting it in Inshot and struggling to upload them to reels? Or doing these ridiculous, dancing around their studio Tik Tok videos? It’s kind of funny to think about really, but I doubt it. Who knows, maybe trying to keep up with the competition of the day is the real reason Van Gogh cut off his own ear!
So here’s how I’m going to do.
I’m just going to keep doing me.
I’m going to just create what I want to create. Post what I want to post. Release when I want to release. Basically, I’m going to do whatever the hell makes my heart happy. I will keep learning and stretching myself, but I won’t be pressured. I get true joy from creating and teaching and helping others to achieve and people will either find me or they won’t.
I don’t get hung up on how many followers I have or how many views I get. I don’t believe that popularity = patronage. If I like something, I’m going to buy it, regardless of how many followers a person has. I don’t see my art as a popularity contest. I am truly thankful for all the wonderful people I have met along the way and appreciate every like, love and comment, but I am not obsessed with the statistics and insights. I’m more than happy to let my work speak for itself and just keep walking to the beat of my own drum, on my own journey, creating my own reality and loving minute of it.
You keep doing you too.
Love and Light
XXX
Z
2 thoughts on “WHO CARES WHAT THEY’RE DOING…..YOU DO YOU”
You just described me. Thank you and I, also, am in transition to “just doing me”. No more being the one to run because someone needs something, or wants something. No more being the one to fill other’s requests and ignoring my own needs or wants. I am finding me…..the one who has always been there but couldn’t find a way out…or perhaps too busy to even look for the way out. I love dotting! It is a new thing for me and finally at 76 I have given myself permission to let “the cat out of the bag” or the “dotting out of the soul” and into my life. Thank you so much for being there. I am going to post this week for the first time. Your group feels safe and although I am not technically challenged, I feel safe posting something I have done. Tried before and been told I am not any good in 1000 ways, but going to do it again, and know what I like and how hard I have worked to do what I have done, but most of all I like it! That is all that matters. Thank you Z…from the bottom of this wrinkled ol’ heart. YOU have changed my life!
MaggieTeasenfitz
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.