I love social media. I’m a huge advocate for it. I think it is an extremely powerful tool that can be fun. I think it can be a skill; I think you can reach people through it that you wouldn’t reach otherwise. I believe it can help make a huge impact.
How are people gradually, and even now majorly, promoting their businesses? Where do people often get their news? What’s an ever-growing way to make job connections with people we’ve met only a few times, or maybe even never? Social media.
But as much as it is such a powerful tool in so many good ways, it has its negative effects.
With every post, that I post at least, comes a desire, even if subconsciously, to get multiple likes. Because if you really break it down, multiple likes on IG tends to, in our minds, mean multiple likes for YOU. You are liked by multiple people. But is that true? Often, I get and give likes and comments to and from people I don’t talk to or don’t even know.
Yet, so many of us thrive off of and post for these likes and comments. Why? My ego is boosted; I feel more confident. But, it’s all from something that isn’t tangible.
I KNOW we’ve all heard it a thousand times from those who don’t like social media. And, no, I’m not saying it’s wrong to hope your post is successful or want a pretty looking feed or try to think of a clever caption.
But I do think if we get our ego boosted from these things, spending so much time on it… friends, we are living off a non-reality, and it distracts us from LIFE.
When we’re waking up, sitting on the train, out with friends, studying, or on break at work, we’re on social media. People have physcially run into me on busy sidewalks with cars speeding by because they didn’t think to look up from their phone and check their surroundings.
We’re bumping RIGHT INTO REALITY and missing it, and we’re too busy in a world that exists on our phones looking at people we often don’t know.
I think social media can be a great tool: use it positively, and we can really make a difference. You can speak your mind/ promote an idea. Let’s just not get too distracted that we miss what’s going on around us.