“I’m tired of the one-upmanship on social media. That’s why I quit,” I heard someone say.
I’ve heard this statement multiple times.
It seems that many of us turn to social media like it’s a competition, an arena of comparison rather than a place of community. We battle for likes on our statuses. We strive to have continual content stream out on our news feed and get noticed. We yearn for pictures to receive affirmation in the form of brief comments.
We want social media to somehow affirm our existence by leading us to believe that our lives are more special than what they actually are.
I was talking to a friend the other day, and she was baffled that she saw a mother being interviewed about her teenage kid faking having a good time in a picture just to trick others that his life is better than theirs. In reality, the kid did nothing but watch television that night.
This isn’t a problem that comes with age; this occurs all across the board. We’ve somehow believed the lie that our lives are made special by what we put up on our social media.
Social media has sadly defined how special our lives are. By the number of likes, comments, and friends we collect, we’ve been led to believe that our worth could be defined online.
I honestly used to believe this.
Being a writer, I try marketing my writings and my brand through social media. I schedule out my tweets, plan my content, and share my writings continually. And when I missed a time posting something, I used to feel guilty about it.
This is because I felt that a social media account filled with content would make me a better writer.
I feared that an empty Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram account would mean that my life is uneventful, my story is boring, and my writing suffers from it all. I was looking to social media to define my specialness.
But then, a conversation with a marketing friend changed my entire perspective.
We were discussing the idea that companies who offer social media strategy should themselves have packed social media accounts where they continually release content to a sea of followers. Basically, the busyness of our social media should serve as evidence to how we do social media strategy.
My marketing friend didn’t believe this should be true.
Instead, he said that our lack of busy social media accounts does not mean that we have poor strategy; it just means that we are more concerned about building up other’s social media accounts.
This struck me as interesting, and I believe there is a parallel with life here as well.
Our empty social media accounts does not mean we have poor, uneventful lives; it just means we are more concerned with defining our worth offline.
This changed my entire perspective. I no longer had to constantly share my writings via social media. I no longer had to come up with continual content. I know my worth as a writer is defined by what I do outside of social media.
I now know it’s what we do offline that counts.
So next time you want to share a status, post a photo, or check your comments, spend more time crafting the story of your life offline.
There will come a day when we will share our stories on social media. It might not be in the moment, and that’s okay. It just means that you are more concerned about the moment offline, than posting about it online.
And in my opinion, offline is the better place to be.
Photo Credit: Highways Agency via Compfight cc