A post popped up on my timeline the other day.
The guy writing it is a social media manager. He’s great at growing accounts.
Now, forgive me, because I didn’t save the post (and spent 30 minutes trying to find it which is impossible on Instagram), so these aren’t his exact words.
But in the post, he mentioned that he secretly wishes for his business to fail.
Why?
Because he and his clients feel trapped by social media.
- They feel like they can’t be themselves and have to fuel a fake online character.
- They see content as a means to an end rather than the end of means.
- He feels as if they would be better off if their businesses failed so they could finally log off social media and get back to nature.
I quite liked this post, it was insightful and well written, but there’s a deeper problem here and I’ve been munching on this idea for quite a while now.
The past few months, there have been plenty of YouTubers and creators in general quitting because of the algorithm not favoring them.
Rather than setting their ego aside and just getting better, they feel as if the social media company should conform to their style so they can survive like they would as an employee.
The entire point of becoming a creator is do do what you want, talk about you want, and play the infinite game of taking on more challenge and improving yourself to get there.
That’s why you started.
Your mind fell in love with growth, challenge, and improvement because that’s what makes life meaningful.
But soon enough, it got boring and repetitive for you.
We all know how dangerous that is.
The solution isn’t quitting altogether under the delusion that living in the woods will solve all of your problems, because that too will get boring and repetitive after the novelty of a new lifestyle wears off.
Like people who just crashed on a deserted island, it’s chaotic for a bit, but then people identify their roles, it becomes peaceful, and out of nowhere someone decides to create a little chaos to make things interesting again.
The solution is to realign.
Social media doesn’t suck, you just follow and please the wrong people.
You don’t have to write content to please the algorithm, you just lack the skill to make your interests interesting enough to sustain your ideal lifestyle.
You don’t have to see content as a means to an end; you can see it as an opportunity to flex your creative muscle, as a vessel for your never-ending life’s work.
- Yes, your income may drop until you experiment enough to find your footing.
- Yes, you will have to forget the digital ideology you programmed yourself into.
- And yes, there is absolutely a way to grow, but you blame the algorithm for your inability to adapt and pivot until you find the intersection of what you love and what people want.
This isn’t personal, because many people are reading this, but maybe you are better off in the perceived comfort and security of a 9-5 or living in the woods until you realize that won’t solve your problems.
In my eyes, social media isn’t just an app on your phone.
- It’s a portal into a land of people who share your same deep interests.
- It’s the metabolism of your mind, allowing you to hunt for beautiful ideas and share them with the world. (Most of my posts are just notes or ideas I want to share).
- It’s an open market where you can build a life-changing product and distribute it to the like minds you attract (to make a meaningful income).
Evolution doesn’t go backward.
The digital march forward will only continue faster and faster.
You can find your place, or you can quit and realize how good you had it before.
