Meandering Thoughts on Social Media (Part 1)

All the decisions I have ever made for mypiggywiggy was because I wanted to do them and felt it in my heart to take action. I have always been a stay in my own lane kind of gal, and while I take notice of scenery and landscape that changes around me, I've never been someone that compared myself to others or my journey or how I ran my business to anyone else. I find that quite boring to be honest and I am realizing now why.  

*Big Sigh* My heart is beating a bit faster as I prepare to write this and I'm telling myself "Do it! Just get it out there!". So here it goes! 

Social Media is making us all boring clones of one another! It's ALL THE SAME thing! (THERE! I said it!) Everyone and everything is starting to look the same... and it's all happening at lightning speed.

And dear reader, it is making me so very sad. I am having such a difficult time articulating my emotions about this and perhaps I need to simmer on these thoughts a bit more. Perhaps sadness is not the right word, I don't know what it is. But it feels a bit like a loss of discovery and wonderment. 

In the olden days of the internet, in the early to mid 2000s, right around the time I started selling vintage online, there was this feeling, oh, I can't quite describe it, but when you came across someone's blog (and they weren't an influencer, they weren't selling anything, and most of the posts had LOTS of copy that were not loaded with keywords for SEO) and you felt a kinship, it was like discovering a long lost friend. I don't know, something like that. I hope you can understand. 

But now, everything feels so IMMEDIATE and there is so much of it, there is perfectly curated CONTENT bombarding you every time you open up your Instagram account. It's overwhelming. You don't have time to absorb and digest anything, or simmer on thoughts and words, or really genuinely connect, because then there's ANOTHER post and ANOTHER. It's so hard to keep up.

It feels too much like a good thing and it's overly saturated and has become watered down. And not to say the content is not genuine, so much of it is. But I feel like we are only capable of absorbing so much and eventually all of these beautiful photos look like carbon copies of one another, and our lives all start to look the same (at least what is portrayed in these tiny squares) as we all start to influence one another whether intentional or not. Do you miss the days when you had perhaps a half a dozen blogs you followed and you so looked forward to their new post perhaps once a week or twice a month? I miss those days. I miss the slowness of consuming and discovering inspiration and beauty.

I've just realized lately that nothing feels organic anymore and I say this as head of marketing of my company. (Well, not that head of marketing means that much. 90% of the time it's just me doing the marketing.) While I don't jump on trends for social media (I honestly do not have time nor care), you'll notice our posts on social media are almost always THE SAME THING now and has been for well over a year. And, well here is another confession, I am utterly bored by it and have been. 

But it doesn't mean I'll stop posting those same photos, because the algorithms really loves those repetitive posts which in turns helps get more views on my shop, which in turn helps my business remain sustainable. Such is the ugly truth of social media. Sameness is rewarded. 

I have gently submitted to the fact that this is how it is until it isn't. For social media, gone are the days of spontaneous photos of sunbeams caught between trees dappling on a small field of Queen Anne's lace. Gone are the days of having a feed that is stitched together of squares of beautiful randomness. Instagram rewards sameness. For a platform that is all about celebrating uniqueness and creativity and storytelling, it's so odd the algorithms favors replicating and repeating.

Sweet friend, I understand the role I play into this. For a business owner, it is a necessary game that must be played according to the rules. For my personal account, I care not an iota. There I can share whatever I please when it pleases me. For my shop, it has taken me time (and I'm still working on it) to come to terms that this marketing outlet DOES NOT and WILL NOT celebrate creative content if it doesn't look very similar to your previous posts the algorithm favored and similar posts from others that the algorithm deemed worthy. 

Well, I'll get off my soap box for now. These feelings and thoughts were annoyingly poking around my heart and I needed to get them out and now I have and I'm sure I'll have more to say at some point. Thank you for listening. If you have similar thoughts and feelings, do share them with me.

- R O D E L L E E -