Social media has changed the world, allowing people from all regions, classes, viewpoints, topics to share and for good and bad. It gives everyone a voice no matter their status. It allows you to find people with a very niche and specific interests that you may not of known of without, and share what we do and what we enjoy with others.
This is especially true for the “maker” community, where social media can be the primary means of sharing projects and ongoing work and products that you make and sell, it opens a powerful means to market what we do, much of my business depends on this channel and could not exist without it.
BUT…
It can also be a massive blood-sucking waste of time, checking comments, likes, and posts every few minutes. It can be a picture we try to compare ourselves to without knowing what is behind the frame, why is their life/business so much better than mine? What am I doing wrong?
We become focused more on the negative aspects many times over the content that feeds and energizes us as it is often the easy path.
This goes further into online forums and groups where expressing your opinion to the great unwashed becomes your cross to bear. Arguing on the Internet can feel like a sport at times, and god knows I’ve done my share, and could turn pro. It’s an easy rabbit hole to fall into, following those you feel need to be “educated” and make your opinion known too, and to all those in the peanut gallery you think you are impressing. At the end of the day, unless it is moving you personally or your business forward and aligned with your goals in life, it HAS NO VALUE.
It is a trap, a distraction, a waste of valuable time. While it may seem “fun” at times, ask yourself what actual “good” or benefit it is to you and the world, and move on, which is not easy to do, but we need to better pick our fights. There are times where making your opinion known is the right path, defending your values or viewpoints, but in many cases, you are screaming into a hurricane, your voice is lost and energy wasted.
With that all being said, I have slowly started to purge who I follow and when and what I interact with online from personal to nubby and business. Life is too short and time is too valuable to waste wrestling with pigs (spider pig aside). It comes down to asking yourself, does this person’s content and viewpoints add value to your life and what you do? Do they align with what energizes you?
That is not to say that everything I follow will be positive and uplifting as there is value in knowing what is going on in the world good and bad, what key competitors are doing and how the industry you work in may be shifting. The key is not fixating on the wrong accounts that merely add frustration – “I wonder what this idiot is up to today” in some narcissistic game of self-loathing or means to feel both good or bad about your position in life.
All a bit of a long-winded ranty way to say I’ll be pruning my social media trees of dead branches, and helping to grow those that give me shade and nutrition. We all get to decide which accounts we following and which discussions we insert ourselves into, just think before you do about what true value it adds. As well, being more self-controlled about what I share and how it impacts others and what value it is adding to the Intertubes as a whole.
Now off to click some unfollows/unfriends/unjoins and find new creative interesting folks to fill that space…
