I have had a saying on repeat in my head: pivot or perish and when it comes to adapting to what it means to be a human today that seems to mean we need to jump on the technology bandwagon and guys, that bandwagon is stressing me out.
I dare say I have the most consistently inconsistent Big Three social media presence. We have a love-hate- on again- off again – terribly toxic relationship and it’s one I can’t seem to escape so we are currently on a summer break.
Today is my first day sober and 1. My chest is lighter and 2. My mood is brighter and 3. Coming to terms with my scroll addiction has been immensely challenging because a. Writers are self imposed peer pressured into content creation b. Technology is woven into our day to day in the most invasive way with or without our consent and c. We are all varying degrees of addicted expending way too large of quantities of energy to justify our online presence and even more energy expenditure reassuring one another being chronically online is normal.
It’s where we share. It’s where we connect. It’s where we build.
Somehow the more time I spend on the social sites the less I wanna share, the more disconnected I feel, and the more dysregulated I am. And like an addict, I just keep going back for more. The dopamine pull is powerful and sometimes resisting it feels pointless.
I just wanna make my own rules (said with my arms folded, lips pouted, feet stomping) and prove that you can sell books and build community without Meta so I guess I am T minus two posts away from perishing because I just can’t pivot.
At least I’ll go down on my own terms. There’s something wonderfully stupid and stubborn about that. And that is quite the poetic end when you consider I have been practicing for this moment my whole life.
In the meantime, I’m gonna keep on writing like no one’s reading while constantly shutting down the thoughts telling me someone will read if I just post on the Zuck-y sites.
I don’t know if anyone else struggles with something that is so seemingly silly to say out loud but if you are then I just want to offer encouragement that our minds are more powerful than the pull to scroll.
And in my new set of writer rules turned mantra: Meta doesn’t matter; mental health does. Even if it seems silly to say we’re negatively impacted by social media because it’s everywhere and everyone’s on it and everyone has varying experiences with the apps, it’s important to honor our own experiences and respond to our own needs because really I think we only perish when our desire to be relevant outweighs our desire to be real.
I don’t have the numbers to prove it but I believe in my bones that we’ll find our people if we keep authenticity at the forefront. Success is in the eye of the beholder and I’d rather send out ripples that make waves over reels that go viral.
If you like what you’ve read, then you’ll love my book (I’m pretty sure).
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