We all know the story – you open up Facebook, Instagram, or your other favorite social media platform and you get sucked into a black hole of scrolling. Or, you check to see what the cool new filters are and start taking selfies. Next thing you know it’s 3 hours later and the only productive thing you did was watch cute dog videos. Just me?! I know I’m not alone on this one 😝
I read a tweet from HeySweetPea on Twitter that really resonated with me about social media.
View social media as a place of community + connection, not competition or comparison. Use this beautiful space to be seen + to see others. – @heysweetpea
Social media can be so tricky. I’ve heard really horrible stories about cyber bullying. Heck, it’s hard for me to not play the comparison game. But if you look at it as a place of community, create positive encouraging conversations, social media can be a really great place and resource.
This year a goal of mine was to utilize social media to encourage others, use it as a positive place, share my journey, and grow my reach through substance, not fluff. I didn’t want my account to just be a bunch of selfies of me with make up on and my hair done or just pics/videos of my adventures. Instead I wanted to show what it’s like in the trenches, what it’s like to be attacked with fear, insecurity, and guilt. I really feel like more people need to be on social media that are real and aren’t afraid to be imperfect. To me, that’s something productive to do with my social media accounts 😊
It’s so easy for people to hide behind their screens and do damaging things. Things that damage themselves, others, or both. It’s easy to say mean and hurtful things when you’re not looking at that person in the eye. It’s easy to wish for something that someone else has because you don’t see how hard they worked to get it. If we change the way we converse over social media it’ll do nothing but good. It’ll make us more productive. It’s all a matter of perspective and social media has a big influence on our perspective. It’s crazy how much power social media has over our lives. And clearly, social media is here to stay. So how are you going to use it productively and for good?
Xoxo,
